J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Has $482,000 Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,082 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 109 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $482,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Danaher by 540.0% during the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 160 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on DHR shares. Raymond James raised their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp increased 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. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $268.27.

Danaher Trading Up 7.2 %

Danaher stock opened at $253.11 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $187.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.61, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $248.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $230.64.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly 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. 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 last year, the company posted $2.87 earnings per share. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors 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 represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.90%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 over the last three months. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

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.