Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Acquired by ARS Investment Partners LLC

ARS Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 46.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,219 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 384 shares during the period. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $280,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. boosted its position in Danaher by 29.9% in the 2nd quarter. Coronation Fund Managers Ltd. now owns 6,389 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,596,000 after buying an additional 1,470 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Danaher in the 2nd quarter valued at about $240,000. AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 15,619 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,903,000 after buying an additional 1,518 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 7.9% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 96,531 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $24,118,000 after buying an additional 7,091 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 43.8% in the 2nd quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,641 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $660,000 after buying an additional 805 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wolfe Research raised shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Danaher from $290.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $305.00 to $285.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.80.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $238.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $234.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $253.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $222.53 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $172.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.50, a PEG ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.02 earnings per share. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is 20.61%.

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.