Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Has $45.79 Million Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 199,493 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 591 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $45,794,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of DHR. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 15.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,617,424 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,566,116,000 after buying an additional 3,217,631 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Danaher by 2.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after buying an additional 139,989 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 3.0% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 5,097,986 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,417,342,000 after buying an additional 148,251 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 2.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,265,725,000 after buying an additional 116,299 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Danaher by 17.6% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $996,141,000 after buying an additional 535,254 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on DHR. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $275.00 target price on the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $278.00 to $277.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Raymond James lowered their target price on shares of Danaher from $310.00 to $300.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $286.80.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR stock opened at $235.08 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $222.53 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $235.67 and its 200-day moving average is $253.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.86, a PEG ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.39% and a return on equity of 10.62%. The company had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.02 earnings per share. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.61%.

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.