Northstar Asset Management Inc. Sells 2,073 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Northstar Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 32,581 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,073 shares during the quarter. Danaher accounts for 2.0% of Northstar Asset Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 25th biggest holding. Northstar Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $7,479,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in Danaher by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 14,835 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,405,000 after buying an additional 1,541 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 24.4% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 254,327 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $58,308,000 after acquiring an additional 49,964 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 68,298 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,678,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $958,000. Finally, Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. raised its position in Danaher by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 1,951 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $448,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on DHR. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated 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 for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $206.66 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $229.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $249.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $149.26 billion, a PE ratio of 39.14, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 20.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Danaher

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.