AIA Group Ltd Lowers Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

AIA Group Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 170,070 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 4,929 shares during the quarter. Danaher makes up approximately 0.9% of AIA Group Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Danaher were worth $39,040,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Partners in Financial Planning purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $433,000. Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $3,768,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth approximately $82,000. RWA Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 12,856 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,951,000 after buying an additional 960 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 756,699 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $173,776,000 after purchasing an additional 73,045 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price target (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $205.69 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $147.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $214.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.39. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) 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 in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.