First National Trust Co Trims Stock Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

First National Trust Co lowered its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 36,292 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,568 shares during the period. First National Trust Co’s holdings in Danaher were worth $8,396,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. grew its stake in Danaher by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 1,899 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $439,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Danaher by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 3,470 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $803,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the period. Drive Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Danaher by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,485 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $344,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP increased its holdings in Danaher by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 10,888 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,519,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Trust Investment Advisors raised its position in Danaher by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 2,811 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $650,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on DHR. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $267.31.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock traded up $1.54 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $248.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,787,817 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,914,990. The stock has a market cap of $183.97 billion, a PE ratio of 42.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12-month low of $182.09 and a 12-month high of $259.00. The company has a 50 day moving average of $248.48 and a 200 day moving average of $232.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In related news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at approximately $28,304,483.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Danaher news, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total value of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 116,202 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,304,483.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total transaction of $5,618,569.18. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 90,412 shares in the company, valued at $22,644,589.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 107,273 shares of company stock valued at $26,813,819 in the last 90 days. 11.10% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.