Cottage Street Advisors LLC Trims Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Cottage Street Advisors LLC reduced its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 12.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,011 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 140 shares during the quarter. Cottage Street Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $232,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on DHR shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, March 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 target price (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $265.00 price target for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on Danaher from $277.00 to $268.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.24.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This trade represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 11.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Danaher Price Performance

Danaher stock opened at $212.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40. The company has a market capitalization of $151.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $216.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $237.75. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $196.80 and a 1 year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

Danaher 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.