Employees Retirement System of Texas Acquires New Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 240,300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $55,161,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Danaher by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $13,715,641,000 after acquiring an additional 315,912 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after purchasing an additional 315,446 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Danaher by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,971,609,000 after buying an additional 441,012 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,051,097,000 after buying an additional 26,305 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Down 8.3 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $181.42 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $165.17 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $209.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $233.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $129.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

About Danaher

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.