Provence Wealth Management Group Buys 1,280 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Provence Wealth Management Group increased its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 225.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,849 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,280 shares during the quarter. Provence Wealth Management Group’s holdings in Danaher were worth $428,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Danaher news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Alan G. Spoon sold 708 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.58, for a total transaction of $172,454.64. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 116,202 shares in the company, valued at $28,304,483.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 107,273 shares of company stock worth $26,813,819. Insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

DHR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upped their price objective on Danaher from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Raymond James lifted their price objective 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. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $267.31.

Danaher Price Performance

Shares of DHR traded up $1.54 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $248.38. 1,787,817 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,914,990. The company has a market cap of $183.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $248.48 and its 200 day moving average is $232.27. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $259.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its 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. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.36 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

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

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.