Mitchell Capital Management Co. Cuts Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Mitchell Capital Management Co. lessened its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 16.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 23,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 4,432 shares during the quarter. Mitchell Capital Management Co.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,287,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Jacobi Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 9,166 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,104,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 3,897 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $895,000 after buying an additional 210 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 40,837 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $9,374,000 after buying an additional 514 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 551,994 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $126,711,000 after buying an additional 43,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,051,097,000 after buying an additional 26,305 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective on the stock. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.00.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Up 1.0 %

DHR opened at $207.73 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $224.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $244.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $148.47 billion, a PE ratio of 39.34, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $196.80 and a 1-year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 24.24%.

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.