Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Sold by BDF Gestion

BDF Gestion lessened its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 11.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,091 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,481 shares during the period. BDF Gestion’s holdings in Danaher were worth $4,382,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter worth $39,000. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the third quarter worth about $40,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth about $50,000. Finally, Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. UBS Group lowered their target price on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank began coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 target price for the company. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $282.48.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $223.12 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $161.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $223.00 and a 52 week high of $281.70. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $236.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $253.66.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.48%. 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.