Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Kentucky Retirement Systems

Kentucky Retirement Systems decreased its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 44,170 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 609 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Danaher were worth $10,139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in DHR. AMF Tjanstepension AB acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $5,923,000. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,637 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 45,631 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $12,686,000 after buying an additional 2,431 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 40,196.5% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after buying an additional 428,897 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on DHR shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Bank of America raised shares of 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. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Danaher Trading Up 1.5 %

NYSE DHR opened at $208.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm has a market cap of $150.31 billion, a PE ratio of 39.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $227.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $247.52.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 period last year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. Analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 20.45%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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.