Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Grows Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 29.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 755,738 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 173,032 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Danaher were worth $173,560,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund raised its stake in Danaher by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 21,233 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,874,000 after acquiring an additional 2,202 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 1,212.8% in the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,770 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $636,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559 shares in the last quarter. Generate Investment Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,044,000. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 847,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $235,583,000 after buying an additional 11,216 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Compass Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Danaher by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Compass Capital Management Inc. now owns 237,922 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $54,615,000 after buying an additional 10,994 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 target price (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday. Barclays decreased their price target on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.76.

Danaher Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $212.78 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $152.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.30, a PEG 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 one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $219.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $240.07.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.24%.

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.