Summit Global Investments Sells 55 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Summit Global Investments lowered its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 896 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 55 shares during the quarter. Summit Global Investments’ holdings in Danaher were worth $206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Millstone Evans Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $101,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. grew its holdings in Danaher by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. now owns 8,143 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,869,000 after purchasing an additional 245 shares during the period. Ballast Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Danaher by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC now owns 4,127 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $947,000 after buying an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 62,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $14,296,000 after purchasing an additional 2,397 shares during the period. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 241.7% during the 4th quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 3,407 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $782,000 after buying an additional 2,410 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on DHR shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of 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. Barclays decreased their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, December 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.24.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $212.36 on Wednesday. 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 one year low of $196.80 and a one year high of $281.70. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $216.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $151.78 billion, a PE ratio of 40.22, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 firm earned $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 firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

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.