Welch & Forbes LLC Has $155.79 Million Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Welch & Forbes LLC trimmed its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 673,433 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,903 shares during the period. Danaher comprises about 2.4% of Welch & Forbes LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Welch & Forbes LLC owned about 0.09% of Danaher worth $155,792,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on DHR shares. Raymond James upped their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America boosted their price target on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $267.31.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,304,483.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the transaction, the director now owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,000,040.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,830 shares in the company, valued at $7,457,798.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 107,273 shares of company stock valued at $26,813,819. 10.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR traded down $0.98 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $247.40. 1,593,955 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,755,556. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $232.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.93, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. 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 1.51 and a current ratio of 1.85.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.36 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

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.