Little House Capital LLC Sells 1,088 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Little House Capital LLC reduced its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 9.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,620 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 1,088 shares during the period. Little House Capital LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,438,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on DHR. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price objective (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup cut their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR opened at $206.66 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $196.80 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $229.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $249.51. The firm has a market cap of $149.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.14, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 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 in the prior year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.45%.

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.