Signet Financial Management LLC Sells 695 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Signet Financial Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 16.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,513 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 695 shares during the period. Signet Financial Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $813,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on DHR shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $267.43.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the business’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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Danaher news, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $826,032.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,548,498.35. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 over the last ninety days. 10.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $240.35 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $259.00. The company’s 50 day moving average is $249.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $229.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $177.99 billion, a PE ratio of 37.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 16.90%.

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.