Renaissance Group LLC Sells 120,853 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Renaissance Group LLC lowered its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 97.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,620 shares of the conglomerate's stock after selling 120,853 shares during the period. Renaissance Group LLC's holdings in Danaher were worth $831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of DHR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Hurley Capital LLC bought a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Danaher by 63.3% during the fourth quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on DHR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Danaher in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $276.57.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Danaher Trading Up 2.2 %

NYSE:DHR traded up $4.18 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $192.91. The company had a trading volume of 1,141,333 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,499,630. The firm has a market cap of $137.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The business's fifty day moving average is $203.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $229.58. 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 Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting 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 period last year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. 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 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.24%.

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.