Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. Purchases Shares of 2,706 Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,706 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $621,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $13,715,641,000 after acquiring an additional 315,912 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Danaher by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after buying an additional 315,446 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth about $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Danaher by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after acquiring an additional 441,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Danaher by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,934,991 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,821,477,000 after acquiring an additional 992,594 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Danaher Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of DHR stock opened at $194.86 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $139.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.90, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $198.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $219.95. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. Research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.85%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group cut their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.40.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total value of $3,129,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,179 shares in the company, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Company 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.