Meritage Portfolio Management Purchases 3,486 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Meritage Portfolio Management raised its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 67,240 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,486 shares during the period. Danaher comprises about 1.0% of Meritage Portfolio Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in Danaher were worth $15,555,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 18.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,185,203,000 after acquiring an additional 3,905,449 shares during the period. Allen Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Danaher by 1,440.7% in the third quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC now owns 1,100,399 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $273,009,000 after purchasing an additional 1,028,976 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the third quarter worth about $178,850,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at about $161,994,000. Finally, Harris Associates L P grew its position in shares of Danaher by 27.7% in the 3rd 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

In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 84,132 shares of company stock valued at $21,022,795 in the last three months. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $270.00.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $1.73 during trading on Friday, hitting $247.53. 1,714,820 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,773,065. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $259.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.66, a PEG ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $248.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $230.88.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.36 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.64 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.31%.

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.