Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Stock Position Lowered by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC lessened its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 97.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 165 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 6,816 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC's holdings in Danaher were worth $38,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in DHR. FMR LLC grew its position in Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth about $391,172,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Danaher by 6,862.7% during 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 in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Danaher by 29,287.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 588,929 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $135,189,000 after purchasing an additional 586,925 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Danaher by 17.6% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $996,141,000 after buying an additional 535,254 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on DHR. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $277.00 price target (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. 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. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $290.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. 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 MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.24.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, 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 available at this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE DHR traded up $1.61 on Monday, reaching $212.97. 3,615,075 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,019,141. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $196.80 and a 12 month high of $281.70. The company has a market cap of $152.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $217.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $238.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. Danaher's payout ratio is 24.24%.

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.