Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Purchased by Cohen Capital Management Inc.

Cohen Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 37.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,012 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 275 shares during the quarter. Cohen Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $232,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays decreased their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on Danaher in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Scotiabank began coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR opened at $209.86 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $226.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $246.96. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $196.80 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The firm has a market cap of $151.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction 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.

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.