Covey Capital Advisors LLC Reduces Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Covey Capital Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,473 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 369 shares during the period. Danaher makes up 1.2% of Covey Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Covey Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,027,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 price objective (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of DHR opened at $208.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $196.80 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $227.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $247.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its 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 last year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.45%.

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.