Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Acquired by APG Asset Management N.V.

APG Asset Management N.V. boosted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 643.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 675,808 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 584,942 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $149,813,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in Danaher by 4.1% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $342,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at about $10,481,000. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 3.9% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 89,520 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $24,888,000 after buying an additional 3,332 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth about $4,963,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Danaher by 2.4% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 273,235 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $75,965,000 after buying an additional 6,313 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the topic of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.24.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR stock opened at $180.71 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $208.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $233.05. The company has a market cap of $129.15 billion, a PE ratio of 34.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. 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 $171.92 and a 12-month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period last year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. 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 0.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.