Ninety One UK Ltd Acquires 4,434 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Ninety One UK Ltd lifted its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 134,189 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,434 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in Danaher were worth $30,803,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, FSA Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on DHR. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $211.92 on Thursday. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $210.04 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.14, a PEG ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $234.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $252.68.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 prior year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th were issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.45%.

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.