1,021 Shares in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Bought by Vawter Financial Ltd.

Vawter Financial Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 1,021 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of DHR. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 6,862.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 929,868 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $213,452,000 after purchasing an additional 916,513 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 17.6% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $996,141,000 after purchasing an additional 535,254 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 40,196.5% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 429,964 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $119,539,000 after purchasing an additional 428,897 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 30.4% during the third quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,705,884 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $465,617,000 after purchasing an additional 397,671 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE DHR opened at $204.22 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $196.80 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $228.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $248.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.67 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price objective (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.00.

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.