Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Buys 3,020 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 64.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,686 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,020 shares during the quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,778,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Danaher by 540.0% in the 3rd quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 160 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 106,565 shares of company stock valued at $26,641,364 over the last 90 days. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Danaher Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, reaching $246.58. The stock had a trading volume of 2,710,446 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,710,897. The company has a market capitalization of $182.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $248.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $231.08. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.36 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s payout ratio is 18.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. HSBC raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven 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 an average target price of $270.00.

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.