Empirical Asset Management LLC Purchases Shares of 63,530 Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Empirical Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 63,530 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $14,583,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of DHR. JGP Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Danaher by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. JGP Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,658 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $840,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel increased its position in shares of Danaher by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 9,348 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,146,000 after purchasing an additional 259 shares in the last quarter. Mirador Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Mirador Capital Partners LP now owns 23,505 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,396,000 after purchasing an additional 904 shares during the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 146,781 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $33,733,000 after purchasing an additional 15,341 shares during the period. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Danaher by 93.8% during the 4th quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,564 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,736,000 after buying an additional 3,661 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on DHR. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Danaher from $250.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Danaher from $333.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price for the company. Finally, Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $286.80.

Danaher Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of DHR opened at $241.94 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $222.53 and a twelve month high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.17, a PEG ratio of 4.23 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $235.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $253.45.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.59 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.62% and a net margin of 16.39%. The company’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.02 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.49 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. 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%.

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.