Allianz SE Acquires New Shares in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Allianz SE bought a new position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 36,558 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $8,396,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Pineridge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 63.3% during the 4th quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rialto Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $205.69 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $147.01 billion, a PE ratio of 38.96, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $214.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $236.90. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $196.80 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on DHR. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.24.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.