Commerce Bank Lowers Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Commerce Bank reduced its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 360,850 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 1,433 shares during the period. Commerce Bank's holdings in Danaher were worth $82,833,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Danaher by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $13,715,641,000 after acquiring an additional 315,912 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after purchasing an additional 315,446 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Danaher by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,971,609,000 after buying an additional 441,012 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $1,051,097,000 after acquiring an additional 26,305 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on 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 owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on DHR. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $264.40.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR traded up $7.15 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $199.22. The company had a trading volume of 3,876,217 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,353,506. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $201.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $225.77. The firm has a market cap of $142.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.73, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $171.00 and a 52 week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.58 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This is an increase 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.