Highland Capital Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Highland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 9.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,333 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,725 shares during the period. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $7,249,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James lifted their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, December 13th. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. TheStreet raised Danaher from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Friday, December 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $215.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $266.00.

Danaher Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $248.84 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $259.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.94, a PEG ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $246.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $230.40.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.87 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 in the last 90 days. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.