Consulta Ltd Has $137.73 Million Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Consulta Ltd increased its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 20.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 600,000 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 100,000 shares during the period. Danaher accounts for about 9.0% of Consulta Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest holding. Consulta Ltd owned about 0.08% of Danaher worth $137,730,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,005,442. This trade represents a 51.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on DHR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective 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. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $264.40.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $190.11 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $136.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $199.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $220.68. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $171.00 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. The firm had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.85%.

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.