Simplify Asset Management Inc. Has $313,000 Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Simplify Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 34.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,365 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 707 shares during the quarter. Simplify Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $313,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 1,749 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $401,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Grimes & Company Inc. grew its position in Danaher by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Grimes & Company Inc. now owns 7,390 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,696,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA lifted its position in Danaher by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Dakota Community Bank & Trust NA now owns 320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,229 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $342,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spinnaker Trust boosted its position in Danaher by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Spinnaker Trust now owns 4,304 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DHR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 target price (down from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Danaher from $285.00 to $265.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR stock opened at $211.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $151.26 billion, a PE ratio of 40.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $196.80 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $217.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $238.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced 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 return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

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.