Mirova US LLC Trims Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Mirova US LLC trimmed its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,377,202 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 41,191 shares during the quarter. Danaher accounts for 3.8% of Mirova US LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position. Mirova US LLC owned approximately 0.19% of Danaher worth $316,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter worth $39,000. Finally, MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter worth $40,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $277.00 price objective (down previously from $299.00) on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective 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. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $277.76.

Danaher Stock Up 1.0 %

DHR opened at $212.78 on Tuesday. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $196.80 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $219.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $240.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $152.08 billion, a PE ratio of 40.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 period last year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other Danaher 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.