WASHINGTON TRUST Co Decreases Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co decreased its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 4,641 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 54 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,074,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Danaher in a report on Wednesday, December 13th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $215.00 to $205.00 in a report on Thursday, December 7th. TheStreet raised Danaher from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Friday, December 8th. Barclays lowered Danaher from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $240.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $266.00.

Danaher Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:DHR traded up $1.37 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $250.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 983,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,739,673. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $230.40. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $259.00. The stock has a market cap of $185.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.84.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The firm had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.87 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.02%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was 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 owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.