Rossby Financial LCC Takes Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Rossby Financial LCC bought a new position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,850 shares of the conglomerate's stock, valued at approximately $654,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Danaher by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $13,715,641,000 after acquiring an additional 315,912 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after purchasing an additional 315,446 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Danaher by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after purchasing an additional 441,012 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,051,097,000 after purchasing an additional 26,305 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, April 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Raymond James reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, 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 research report on Friday, March 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $274.55.

Danaher Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE DHR traded down $3.95 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $186.71. The company had a trading volume of 3,667,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,329,070. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $202.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $227.84. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $171.00 and a 12-month high of $281.70. The company has a market capitalization of $133.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.36, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates 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 prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Danaher's payout ratio is 24.24%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The shares were 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 directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.