Whalerock Point Partners LLC Purchases 470 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Whalerock Point Partners LLC lifted its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,645 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 470 shares during the period. Whalerock Point Partners LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,525,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC lifted its position in Danaher by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 5,029 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,154,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Aquatic Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 151.4% during the fourth quarter. Aquatic Capital Management LLC now owns 156,617 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $35,951,000 after buying an additional 94,317 shares during the last quarter. Oxford Asset Management LLP increased its holdings in Danaher by 37.2% in the 4th quarter. Oxford Asset Management LLP now owns 2,079 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $477,000 after buying an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Bolthouse Investments LLC purchased a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth about $247,000. Finally, Wills Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Wills Financial Group Inc. now owns 41,797 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $9,594,000 after acquiring an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 20,230 shares in the company, valued at $4,534,149.90. The trade was a 21.98 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:DHR opened at $197.37 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $141.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $200.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $224.27. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th were given a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Danaher in a report on Monday, April 7th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Danaher from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Danaher presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $264.40.

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.