Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Acquires 243,066 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 521.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 289,642 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 243,066 shares during the quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $66,488,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Burling Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,825,000. Syon Capital LLC grew its stake in Danaher by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 8,289 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,903,000 after buying an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Tenere Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 59.5% in the 4th quarter. Tenere Capital LLC now owns 57,928 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $13,297,000 after buying an additional 21,600 shares during the last quarter. Ironvine Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Ironvine Capital Partners LLC now owns 127,225 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $29,204,000 after buying an additional 23,906 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MGO One Seven LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. MGO One Seven LLC now owns 4,285 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $984,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on DHR shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $264.40.

Danaher Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $196.48 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $171.00 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $201.01 and its 200 day moving average is $225.07. The company has a market cap of $140.43 billion, a PE ratio of 37.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. The company had revenue of $5.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.85%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total transaction of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.