Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC Buys 251 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,941 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the quarter. Hunter Associates Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $448,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. bought a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total transaction of $826,032.35. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 14,129 shares in the company, valued at $3,548,498.35. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR traded down $0.85 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $235.51. The stock had a trading volume of 2,351,430 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,437,629. The firm has a market cap of $174.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.83, a PEG ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $248.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 16.90%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup raised their price objective on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays raised their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.27.

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.