California Public Employees Retirement System Has $359.38 Million Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,553,484 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 40,601 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Danaher were worth $359,383,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of DHR. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in Danaher by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,449 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $359,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its position in Danaher by 10.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 1,320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $327,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments grew its position in Danaher by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 2,202 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the period. RFG Advisory LLC grew its position in Danaher by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 6,048 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,500,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares during the period. Finally, Naples Global Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $249,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was 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 owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was 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 owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, 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 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802 in the last quarter. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR traded up $0.57 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $236.08. The stock had a trading volume of 2,809,648 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,724,488. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $230.25. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $259.00. The stock has a market cap of $174.83 billion, a PE ratio of 36.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.90%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Raymond James raised their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.27.

Danaher Company 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.