Nixon Peabody Trust Co. Has $14.07 Million Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Nixon Peabody Trust Co. boosted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 61,272 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $14,065,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $207.73 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $224.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $245.09. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market cap of $148.47 billion, a PE ratio of 39.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $196.80 and a 12 month high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting 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 earned $2.09 EPS. Equities 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 dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 24.24%.

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.