abrdn plc Sells 191,937 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

abrdn plc lowered its stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 14.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,094,425 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 191,937 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in Danaher were worth $253,184,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Danaher during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James increased their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target 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 raised their price objective on shares of Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $268.27.

Danaher Price Performance

NYSE DHR traded down $0.85 during trading on Friday, hitting $235.51. 2,351,430 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,437,629. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $248.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $230.05. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $259.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $174.41 billion, a PE ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion during 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 revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.87 EPS. Research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business’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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher 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 owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

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.