Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Has $173.56 Million Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 29.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 755,738 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 173,032 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned 0.10% of Danaher worth $173,560,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund grew its position in shares of Danaher by 11.6% in the 4th quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 21,233 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,874,000 after buying an additional 2,202 shares during the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in Danaher by 1,212.8% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,770 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $636,000 after purchasing an additional 2,559 shares during the period. Generate Investment Management Ltd bought a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $8,044,000. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 847,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $235,583,000 after purchasing an additional 11,216 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Compass Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Danaher by 4.8% during the fourth quarter. Compass Capital Management Inc. now owns 237,922 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $54,615,000 after buying an additional 10,994 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on DHR. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 target price on Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 14th. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $277.00 target price (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.76.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE DHR opened at $212.78 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $219.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $240.07. The firm has a market cap of $152.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.30, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $196.80 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

About Danaher

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.