Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) SVP Sells $1,277,541.00 in Stock

Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

Danaher Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of Danaher stock traded down $0.52 on Friday, hitting $222.56. 4,785,829 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,684,308. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $221.34 and a one year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company has a fifty day moving average of $235.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $253.24. The company has a market capitalization of $160.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.22 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.72% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 8.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 20.45%.

Institutional Trading of Danaher

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of DHR. FMR LLC increased its position in Danaher by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 3.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,417,342,000 after buying an additional 148,251 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 2.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,265,725,000 after buying an additional 116,299 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Danaher by 17.6% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $996,141,000 after buying an additional 535,254 shares during the period. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Danaher by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,715,826 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $382,936,000 after purchasing an additional 9,942 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. KeyCorp upped their target price on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

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.