Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co Has $19.63 Million Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 27.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 85,500 shares of the conglomerate's stock after buying an additional 18,500 shares during the period. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co's holdings in Danaher were worth $19,627,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,130,740,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $391,172,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased 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 buying an additional 916,513 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted 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 valued at $712,842,000 after acquiring an additional 749,136 shares during the period. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Danaher by 29,287.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 588,929 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $135,189,000 after buying an additional 586,925 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upgraded shares of Danaher from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $240.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus 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 the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their position. 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 Stock Down 4.8 %

NYSE DHR traded down $9.12 on Thursday, reaching $182.77. The stock had a trading volume of 3,032,155 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,290,552. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $171.00 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $204.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $231.11. 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 company has a market capitalization of $130.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting 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 business earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. This is a boost from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

About Danaher

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.