Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Purchased by Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,679,156 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 96,174 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA owned about 0.51% of Danaher worth $844,550,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $1,143,000. Weitz Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Danaher by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Weitz Investment Management Inc. now owns 403,210 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $92,557,000 after purchasing an additional 52,300 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at about $9,601,000. PFC Capital Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. PFC Capital Group Inc. now owns 3,262 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $748,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,056,996,000 after buying an additional 315,446 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank started coverage on Danaher in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR opened at $200.09 on Wednesday. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $196.80 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $143.01 billion, a PE ratio of 37.90, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $213.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $235.39.

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, meeting 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 last year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. 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 represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.24%.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher 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 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.