Banco Santander S.A. Grows Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Banco Santander S.A. raised its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 56.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,757 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,151 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,010,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Danaher by 63.3% during the fourth quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.00.

Danaher Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE DHR opened at $212.35 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $222.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $242.62. The company has a market cap of $151.77 billion, a PE ratio of 40.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $196.80 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting 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 in the previous year, the business earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 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.