BankPlus Trust Department Takes $776,000 Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 3,382 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $776,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Edge Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Edge Capital Group LLC now owns 3,707 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $851,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in Danaher by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 6,951 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,595,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd boosted its position in Danaher by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Waverton Investment Management Ltd now owns 2,454 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $563,000 after buying an additional 158 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 12,682 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,911,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Equity Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. World Equity Group Inc. now owns 2,726 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $626,000 after buying an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on DHR. Wolfe Research upgraded 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 dropped their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.00.

Danaher Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $209.86 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $149.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.83. 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. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $226.71 and a 200 day moving average of $246.84.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.61%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.24%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

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 transaction 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 approximately $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Danaher 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.