Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Buys 130 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 55,107 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 130 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Danaher were worth $12,650,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund boosted its holdings in Danaher by 11.6% in the fourth quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 21,233 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,874,000 after acquiring an additional 2,202 shares during the last quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $66,194,000 after purchasing an additional 7,421 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 1,212.8% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,770 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $636,000 after buying an additional 2,559 shares during the period. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.2% during the third quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after buying an additional 2,465 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Generate Investment Management Ltd acquired a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,044,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on DHR shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on Danaher in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target on the stock. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.00.

Danaher Stock Down 0.2 %

NYSE:DHR opened at $210.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $225.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $246.04. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $196.80 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $150.56 billion, a PE ratio of 39.90, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 24.24%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Profile

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services that advance, accelerate, and integrate the development and manufacture of therapeutics; cell line and cell culture media development services; cell culture media, process liquids and buffers for manufacturing, chromatography resins, filtration technologies, aseptic fill finish; single-use hardware and consumables and services, such as the design and installation of full manufacturing suites; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes, and services; and healthcare filtration solutions.