Hickory Point Bank & Trust Takes $235,000 Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Hickory Point Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,025 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at $230,000. Jacobi Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 9,166 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,104,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the period. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 3,897 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $895,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 40,837 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $9,374,000 after buying an additional 514 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 551,994 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $126,711,000 after buying an additional 43,223 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on DHR shares. Barclays cut their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $207.73 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $196.80 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a market capitalization of $148.47 billion, a PE ratio of 39.34, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50 day moving average of $224.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $244.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

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.