Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. Acquires 11,498 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 33.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,838 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,498 shares during the quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $10,522,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 7,269 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,669,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Terra Alpha Investments LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $3,068,000. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 76,493 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $17,556,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the period. Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $204,000. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,320,681 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $302,714,000 after acquiring an additional 10,109 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on DHR shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of Danaher stock opened at $212.78 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $219.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $240.07. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $196.80 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The firm has a market cap of $152.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share 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 last year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 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.