154 Shares in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Acquired by Rakuten Securities Inc.

Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 154 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $36,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Danaher during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Danaher during the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the third quarter worth approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE DHR opened at $236.37 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $175.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $182.09 and a 12 month high of $259.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $249.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $229.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.87 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.90%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on DHR. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total transaction of $826,032.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,129 shares in the company, valued at $3,548,498.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total transaction of $826,032.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 14,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,548,498.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company 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.