Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by Mirova US LLC

Mirova US LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,377,202 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 41,191 shares during the period. Danaher comprises about 3.8% of Mirova US LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Mirova US LLC owned about 0.19% of Danaher worth $316,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in Danaher by 15.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after purchasing an additional 3,217,631 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $391,172,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 916,513 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 749,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Danaher by 29,287.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 588,929 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $135,189,000 after purchasing an additional 586,925 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on DHR. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday. Bank of America raised shares of 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. Finally, Raymond James reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Performance

Danaher stock traded up $1.38 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $211.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 6,383,342 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,013,925. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $196.80 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $217.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $238.86. The company has a market cap of $151.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.08, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share 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 previous year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Danaher's payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 10.90% of the company's stock.

Danaher Company 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.