OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Takes Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,008 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on DHR. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. 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. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $210.14 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $217.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $239.26. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $196.80 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $150.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.80, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.24%.

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.