Russell Investments Group Ltd. Purchases 104,627 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 968,947 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 104,627 shares during the quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $224,246,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Danaher by 540.0% in the third 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $1,000,040.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,830 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,457,798.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 4,000 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total transaction of $1,000,040.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 29,830 shares in the company, valued at $7,457,798.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $826,032.35. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,548,498.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 106,565 shares of company stock valued at $26,641,364 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, hitting $246.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,710,446 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,710,897. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $231.08. The firm 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. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $259.00.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on DHR shares. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays raised 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 raised 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. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $270.00.

About Danaher

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.