Private Wealth Partners LLC Buys 3,912 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Private Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 98,780 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,912 shares during the period. Danaher comprises about 1.7% of Private Wealth Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Private Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $22,675,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on DHR. Wolfe Research upgraded Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $278.00.

Danaher Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of DHR opened at $205.23 on Thursday. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $196.80 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $227.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $247.80. The company has a market cap of $148.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th were given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

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.