National Bank of Canada FI Boosts Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 23.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 540,184 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 103,083 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 0.07% of Danaher worth $126,008,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total transaction of $172,454.64. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total transaction of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,304,483.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 107,273 shares of company stock worth $26,813,819. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on DHR shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $267.31.

Danaher Trading Up 0.6 %

DHR traded up $1.54 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $248.38. The stock had a trading volume of 1,787,817 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,914,990. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a current ratio of 1.85. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $248.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $232.60.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 18.31%.

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.