Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Acquired by Institute for Wealth Management LLC.

Institute for Wealth Management LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,462 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the quarter. Institute for Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 96,490.5% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 23,287,013 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,180,839,000 after buying an additional 23,262,904 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $2,057,164,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Danaher by 18.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after purchasing an additional 3,905,449 shares in the last quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1,440.7% in the 3rd quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 1,100,399 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $273,009,000 after purchasing an additional 1,028,976 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $178,850,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DHR. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Raymond James boosted their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $235.51 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $259.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $230.05. The stock has a market cap of $174.41 billion, a PE ratio of 36.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.87 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 16.90%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 over the last 90 days. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.