Crowley Wealth Management Inc. Buys New Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 300 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $69,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 315,912 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in Danaher by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 402,244 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $92,335,000 after buying an additional 22,903 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $4,220,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $51,367,000. Finally, Umpqua Bank raised its position in shares of Danaher by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 1,310 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $311,000 after acquiring an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on DHR shares. Bank of America raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.24.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $211.63 on Monday. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $196.80 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $217.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $238.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $151.26 billion, a PE ratio of 40.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. 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 (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share 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 given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s 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. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.