Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Grows Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 288,914 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 2,926 shares during the quarter. Danaher makes up approximately 1.2% of Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th biggest holding. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $66,900,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the third quarter worth about $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, December 13th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays downgraded shares of Danaher from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $240.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $266.00.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Up 1.0 %

Danaher stock traded up $2.38 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $244.28. The stock had a trading volume of 2,226,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,461,988. The firm has a market cap of $180.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.71 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a fifty day moving average of $249.43 and a 200 day moving average of $230.22. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $259.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.87 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 16.90%.

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.