LaFleur & Godfrey LLC Trims Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

LaFleur & Godfrey LLC reduced its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 23.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 32,810 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 9,909 shares during the period. LaFleur & Godfrey LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $7,590,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV increased its position in shares of Danaher by 0.8% during the first quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 6,064 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,779,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Mirova increased its position in shares of Danaher by 1.1% during the second quarter. Mirova now owns 4,159 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $998,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Apella Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Danaher by 2.0% during the third quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 2,332 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $579,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Danaher by 0.9% during the third quarter. Peddock Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,523 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,370,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IMS Capital Management increased its position in shares of Danaher by 0.4% during the second quarter. IMS Capital Management now owns 11,046 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,651,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Barclays downgraded Danaher from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $240.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. TheStreet upgraded Danaher from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, December 8th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $215.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $266.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR traded up $0.79 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $249.56. 920,881 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,738,226. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $246.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $230.40. The firm has a market cap of $184.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.22, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.84. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $259.00.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The business’s revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.87 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 15.02%.

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.