CoreFirst Bank & Trust Purchases Shares of 3,014 Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,014 shares of the conglomerate's stock, valued at approximately $692,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Napean Trading & Investment Co Singapore PTE Ltd lifted its stake in Danaher by 52.9% in the fourth quarter. Napean Trading & Investment Co Singapore PTE Ltd now owns 55,497 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $12,739,000 after buying an additional 19,193 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in Danaher by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 882,312 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $202,535,000 after purchasing an additional 26,982 shares during the last quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,982 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,144,000 after purchasing an additional 228 shares during the period. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE grew its position in Danaher by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE now owns 12,749 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $2,927,000 after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crowley Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $69,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the 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 owns 20,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America raised Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $290.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus raised Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Raymond James reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $278.24.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock traded down $3.78 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $206.01. The stock had a trading volume of 854,005 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,178,131. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $196.80 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $215.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $237.37. The company has a market cap of $147.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) 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 period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher's dividend 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.