Trust Co. of Vermont Grows Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 24,286 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 3,146 shares during the period. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,575,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of DHR. FMR LLC raised its stake in Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Danaher by 2.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after purchasing an additional 139,989 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 3.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,417,342,000 after purchasing an additional 148,251 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,265,725,000 after buying an additional 116,299 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Danaher by 17.6% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $996,141,000 after buying an additional 535,254 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on DHR. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Guggenheim began coverage on Danaher in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $275.00 price target for the company. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.80.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock traded down $3.49 during trading on Friday, hitting $238.41. The company had a trading volume of 3,044,734 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,640,177. The firm has a market capitalization of $172.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $234.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $253.37. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $222.53 and a one year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.02 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

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.