Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp Sells 20,546 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp decreased its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 289,743 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 20,546 shares during the quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp’s holdings in Danaher were worth $66,511,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,566,116,000 after acquiring an additional 3,217,631 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $391,172,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Danaher by 6,862.7% in 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 during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 31.8% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 3,105,388 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $712,842,000 after buying an additional 749,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Danaher by 29,287.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 588,929 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $135,189,000 after buying an additional 586,925 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on DHR shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Danaher in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price for the company. Finally, 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 note on Thursday, January 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.24.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $212.36 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $151.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.22, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $196.80 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $216.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $237.75.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 prior year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current 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 given a $0.32 dividend. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.24%.

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.