Bokf Na Raises Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Bokf Na boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 46,329 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,124 shares during the quarter. Bokf Na’s holdings in Danaher were worth $10,891,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Norges Bank bought a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at $2,130,740,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $391,172,000. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Danaher by 32.7% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 6,361,183 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,460,215,000 after purchasing an additional 1,566,658 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Danaher by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,934,991 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,821,477,000 after buying an additional 992,594 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Danaher by 6,862.7% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 929,868 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $213,452,000 after buying an additional 916,513 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01 % 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. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $264.40.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $197.47 on Tuesday. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $171.00 and a 52-week high of $281.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $141.32 billion, a PE ratio of 37.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $199.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $220.89. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th were paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 28th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

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.