Northern Trust Corp Increases Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,934,991 shares of the conglomerate's stock after acquiring an additional 992,594 shares during the quarter. Northern Trust Corp owned 1.10% of Danaher worth $1,821,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Danaher by 63.3% during the 4th quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business'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 directly owns 20,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DHR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James reissued a "market perform" rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of 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. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $264.40.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $197.37 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $200.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $223.98. The stock has a market cap of $141.25 billion, a PE 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. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th were issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. This is a boost from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 28th. Danaher's payout ratio is 24.85%.

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.

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