Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,904 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 120 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $713,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in DHR. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 3.2% in the third quarter. Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC now owns 238,092 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $66,194,000 after purchasing an additional 7,421 shares in the last quarter. Good Life Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $217,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 1,212.8% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,770 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $636,000 after buying an additional 2,559 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. raised its stake in Danaher by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. now owns 202,263 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $56,233,000 after acquiring an additional 2,465 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in Danaher by 1.3% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 847,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $235,583,000 after acquiring an additional 11,216 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on DHR shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price objective (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

Danaher Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of DHR stock opened at $211.92 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $234.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $252.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.07 billion, a PE ratio of 40.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $210.04 and a 1-year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 previous year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 20.45%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate 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.