Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Phoenix Financial Ltd.

Phoenix Financial Ltd. reduced its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 11.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,715 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 3,443 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd.'s holdings in Danaher were worth $6,139,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in DHR. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth about $2,130,740,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $391,172,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of 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. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 3,105,388 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $712,842,000 after buying an additional 749,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher by 29,287.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 588,929 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $135,189,000 after acquiring an additional 586,925 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on DHR. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a "sector perform" rating and a $265.00 target price on the stock. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $275.00 price objective on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Barclays upgraded Danaher from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $240.00 to $205.00 in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $276.57.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher 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. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR traded down $3.00 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $189.97. 1,204,904 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,314,524. The stock has a market capitalization of $135.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.98, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $171.00 and a one year high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business's fifty day moving average is $203.33 and its 200-day moving average is $229.00.

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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. This is a positive change from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. 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.