Pittenger & Anderson Inc. Buys 9,851 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Pittenger & Anderson Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 19.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 59,875 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 9,851 shares during the period. Pittenger & Anderson Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $13,851,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Danaher by 18.6% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,930,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $6,185,203,000 after purchasing an additional 3,905,449 shares during the last quarter. Allen Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the third quarter valued at about $178,850,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $161,994,000. Finally, Harris Associates L P raised its position in shares of Danaher by 27.7% in the third quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 2,963,899 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $735,343,000 after purchasing an additional 642,759 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were 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 $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were 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 $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total transaction of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,908,273.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 84,132 shares of company stock worth $21,022,795. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of Danaher stock traded up $1.66 during trading on Friday, reaching $247.46. 1,583,154 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,770,903. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.37. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $182.09 and a 1-year high of $259.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $248.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $183.29 billion, a PE ratio of 41.66, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.36 EPS. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on DHR shares. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $270.00.

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.