Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. Sells 231 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 8.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,456 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 231 shares during the quarter. Cutter & CO Brokerage Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $568,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 18.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after buying an additional 3,905,449 shares during the last quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Danaher by 1,440.7% during the third quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 1,100,399 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $273,009,000 after acquiring an additional 1,028,976 shares in the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Danaher during the third quarter valued at approximately $178,850,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $161,994,000. Finally, Harris Associates L P increased its holdings in Danaher by 27.7% during the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 2,963,899 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $735,343,000 after buying an additional 642,759 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DHR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price objective on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Danaher Trading Up 7.2 %

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $17.03 on Tuesday, hitting $253.11. The stock had a trading volume of 6,876,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,777,720. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $248.72 and a 200 day moving average of $230.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $259.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $187.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.46, a PEG ratio of 3.95 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.87 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a $0.27 dividend. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 16.90%.

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.