Partners in Financial Planning Makes New Investment in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Partners in Financial Planning acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,886 shares of the conglomerate's stock, valued at approximately $433,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $3,768,000. Physician Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $82,000. RWA Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 12,856 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $2,951,000 after purchasing an additional 960 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its stake in Danaher by 10.7% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 756,699 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $173,776,000 after acquiring an additional 73,045 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Danaher by 140.6% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 803,749 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $184,501,000 after purchasing an additional 469,685 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other 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 transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $290.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Danaher from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Guggenheim initiated coverage on Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a "buy" rating and a $275.00 price target on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Down 8.3 %

NYSE:DHR traded down $16.49 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $181.42. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,117,117 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,225,815. 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 market cap of $129.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The business's 50-day moving average is $209.99 and its 200-day moving average is $234.26. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $181.20 and a one year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS 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 issued a $0.32 dividend. This is a positive change from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Danaher's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

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.