Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group Grows Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group grew its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 23.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,559 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after buying an additional 301 shares during the quarter. Oliver Lagore Vanvalin Investment Group’s holdings in Danaher were worth $361,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. NBW Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Danaher by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. NBW Capital LLC now owns 23,864 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,521,000 after buying an additional 857 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd raised its position in shares of Danaher by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 119,794 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $27,713,000 after acquiring an additional 10,930 shares in the last quarter. Tufton Capital Management raised its position in shares of Danaher by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. Tufton Capital Management now owns 10,614 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,455,000 after acquiring an additional 2,062 shares in the last quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora raised its position in shares of Danaher by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora now owns 11,943 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $2,763,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. now owns 1,240 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $289,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James upped their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Barclays upped their price target on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. KeyCorp upped their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Citigroup increased 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,601,704. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $826,032.35. Following the transaction, the director now owns 14,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,548,498.35. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. 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 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE DHR traded down $3.44 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $235.95. 2,580,150 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,705,003. Danaher Co. has a 52 week low of $182.09 and a 52 week high of $259.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $249.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $229.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.37. The company has a market cap of $174.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.46, a PEG ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.83.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The business had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.10 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.87 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The company 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 a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 16.90%.

About Danaher

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.