Mitchell Capital Management Co. Reduces Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Mitchell Capital Management Co. reduced its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 16.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,031 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 4,432 shares during the period. Mitchell Capital Management Co.'s holdings in Danaher were worth $5,287,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jacobi Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Jacobi Capital Management LLC now owns 9,166 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $2,104,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC now owns 3,897 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $895,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 40,837 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $9,374,000 after purchasing an additional 514 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 551,994 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $126,711,000 after purchasing an additional 43,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,051,097,000 after acquiring an additional 26,305 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on DHR. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays cut their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Guggenheim began coverage on Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $275.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Bank of America raised Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $290.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $278.00.

Danaher Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE DHR traded up $0.23 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $205.92. 5,652,379 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,574,931. The company has a market cap of $147.17 billion, a PE ratio of 39.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $223.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $243.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

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, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. This is an increase from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher's dividend payout ratio is 24.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 owns 20,230 shares in the company, 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 through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.