UMB Bank n.a. Lowers Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

UMB Bank n.a. lowered its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 110,005 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 3,090 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $25,252,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Danaher by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Trueblood Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,532 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $811,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Mechanics Bank Trust Department raised its stake in Danaher by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 9,233 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,119,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193 shares in the last quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Danaher by 7.8% during the 4th quarter. Diversify Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,186 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,924,000 after acquiring an additional 592 shares in the last quarter. Hall Laurie J Trustee raised its stake in Danaher by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Hall Laurie J Trustee now owns 21,669 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $4,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ballast Inc. raised its stake in Danaher by 4.9% during the 4th quarter. Ballast Inc. now owns 5,250 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,205,000 after acquiring an additional 245 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on DHR shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Danaher from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $285.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Raymond James dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price target on the stock. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $286.80.

Danaher Stock Down 1.4 %

DHR stock opened at $238.41 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $172.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.50, a P/E/G ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $222.53 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $234.85 and its 200 day moving average price is $253.42. 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 (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.59 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.61%.

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.