Capital Research Global Investors Increases Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,812,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 370,111 shares during the quarter. Capital Research Global Investors owned about 0.80% of Danaher worth $1,334,312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $13,715,641,000 after buying an additional 315,912 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,056,996,000 after purchasing an additional 315,446 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after purchasing an additional 441,012 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Danaher by 32.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,361,183 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,460,215,000 after buying an additional 1,566,658 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on DHR shares. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $274.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR stock opened at $186.71 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $201.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $227.23. 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 stock has a market cap of $133.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

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.