HTLF Bank Purchases New Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

HTLF Bank purchased a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,509 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $580,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. Lafayette Investments Inc. increased its stake in Danaher by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 7,957 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,841,000 after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the last quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 38.2% during the fourth quarter. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,259 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,217,000 after buying an additional 1,453 shares during the period. Trust Investment Advisors boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 2,811 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $650,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 36.2% during the fourth quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC now owns 329,902 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $76,320,000 after buying an additional 87,658 shares during the period. Finally, Xponance Inc. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 94,101 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $21,769,000 after buying an additional 8,252 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on DHR shares. Citigroup raised their price target on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James lifted their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Finally, HSBC raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday. Six investment 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $268.27.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR opened at $235.37 on Friday. Danaher Co. has a twelve month low of $182.09 and a twelve month high of $259.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $248.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $230.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.30 billion, a PE ratio of 36.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced 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 return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. 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. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s payout ratio is currently 16.90%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.