Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Bought by Ballast Advisors LLC

Ballast Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,127 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $947,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,971,609,000 after acquiring an additional 441,012 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in Danaher by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,417,342,000 after purchasing an additional 148,251 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,051,097,000 after acquiring an additional 26,305 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 3.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,066,755 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $933,524,000 after purchasing an additional 135,047 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target 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. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Guggenheim started coverage on Danaher in a research note 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 note on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.76.

Danaher Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $210.14 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.19 billion, a PE ratio of 39.80, 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 current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $196.80 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $217.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $239.26.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting 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. On average, analysts expect 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 is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

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.