Rakuten Securities Inc. Takes Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 154 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $36,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Danaher by 18.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after buying an additional 3,905,449 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 96,490.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,287,013 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,180,839,000 after buying an additional 23,262,904 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Danaher by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,183,501 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,030,327,000 after buying an additional 502,868 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Danaher by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 8,100,722 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,009,789,000 after buying an additional 134,905 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,057,164,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on DHR shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.27.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802 over the last ninety days. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $236.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $175.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $182.09 and a 1-year high of $259.00. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $249.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $229.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.87 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 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 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 16.90%.

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.