Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Stifel Financial Corp

Stifel Financial Corp reduced its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 839,180 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 8,168 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp owned approximately 0.12% of Danaher worth $192,637,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in DHR. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,130,740,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $391,172,000. Capital World Investors raised its position in Danaher by 32.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,361,183 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,460,215,000 after acquiring an additional 1,566,658 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Danaher by 6,862.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 929,868 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $213,452,000 after acquiring an additional 916,513 shares during the period. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 31.8% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 3,105,388 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $712,842,000 after purchasing an additional 749,136 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $264.40.

Danaher Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of DHR traded up $0.87 on Friday, hitting $197.37. 2,608,666 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,350,769. The stock's 50 day moving average is $201.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $225.07. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $141.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $171.00 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors 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. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.85%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.