Guardian Partners Inc. Buys Shares of 17,724 Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Guardian Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 17,724 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $4,220,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 63.3% during the fourth quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.24.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $211.63 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $196.80 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The firm has a market cap of $151.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $217.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $238.68. 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 released 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 net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher 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 directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 10.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.