Lafayette Investments Inc. Has $1.84 Million Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Lafayette Investments Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,957 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 425 shares during the quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,841,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DHR. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 38.2% in the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,259 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,453 shares during the last quarter. Trust Investment Advisors raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 2,811 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $650,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 36.2% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 329,902 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $76,320,000 after acquiring an additional 87,658 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 94,101 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $21,769,000 after acquiring an additional 8,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AIA Group Ltd raised its stake in shares of Danaher by 614.2% in the fourth quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 153,827 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $35,586,000 after acquiring an additional 132,289 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR stock traded down $1.00 on Friday, reaching $235.36. The stock had a trading volume of 507,370 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,697,690. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $249.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $229.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 12 month low of $182.09 and a 12 month high of $259.00.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.91 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.87 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.46%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.90%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on DHR shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective 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. HSBC upgraded shares of Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $268.27.

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.