Uncommon Cents Investing LLC Buys 470 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Uncommon Cents Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 30.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,990 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 470 shares during the quarter. Uncommon Cents Investing LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $460,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Danaher during the third quarter valued at $34,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

DHR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. HSBC started coverage on Danaher in a research report on Monday, December 18th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Danaher from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. TheStreet raised Danaher from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, December 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $215.00 to $205.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $266.00.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock traded up $0.95 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $249.72. 2,434,047 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,765,013. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $247.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $230.53. The company has a market cap of $184.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.21, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.84. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $259.00. 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 (NYSE:DHR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.87 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.02%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total value of $5,986,764.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $826,032.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,129 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,548,498.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802 in the last quarter. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.