Freestone Grove Partners LP Makes New $75.19 Million Investment in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 327,548 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $75,189,000. Danaher makes up 0.9% of Freestone Grove Partners LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Danaher by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $13,715,641,000 after buying an additional 315,912 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after buying an additional 315,446 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Danaher by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,971,609,000 after purchasing an additional 441,012 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of 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. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

DHR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Raymond James reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, 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. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.40.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $199.32 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $142.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $200.30 and a 200-day moving average of $223.12. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $171.00 and a 52 week high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 16.33%. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 28th were paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Danaher’s payout ratio is 24.85%.

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.