Montis Financial LLC Increases Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Montis Financial LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 28.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,533 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the period. Montis Financial LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $352,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Zevin Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Zevin Asset Management LLC now owns 63,435 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $14,561,000 after acquiring an additional 5,726 shares during the period. Postrock Partners LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $725,000. LBP AM SA grew its position in shares of Danaher by 30.2% during the 4th quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 26,860 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,166,000 after purchasing an additional 6,231 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 3,105,388 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $712,842,000 after purchasing an additional 749,136 shares during the period. Finally, Sustainable Growth Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Danaher by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 3,232,010 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $741,908,000 after buying an additional 272,323 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Danaher in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $277.76.

Danaher Stock Up 3.4 %

NYSE DHR opened at $211.09 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $220.07 and its 200 day moving average is $240.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $150.87 billion, a PE ratio of 39.98, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. 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 $196.80 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. 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 currently 24.24%.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.