South Dakota Investment Council Increases Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

South Dakota Investment Council increased its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 82.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,995 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,420 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Danaher by 18.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after acquiring an additional 3,905,449 shares during the last quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1,440.7% in the third quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 1,100,399 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $273,009,000 after buying an additional 1,028,976 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher in the third quarter worth $178,850,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt acquired a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $161,994,000. Finally, Harris Associates L P boosted its holdings in Danaher by 27.7% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 2,963,899 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $735,343,000 after purchasing an additional 642,759 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’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 value of $816,724.48. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on DHR shares. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $270.00.

Danaher Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $250.41 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $185.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.44, a PEG ratio of 4.24 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $249.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $230.78. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.48% and a net margin of 16.78%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.36 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

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.