Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Sells 2,208 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lowered its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 73,354 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 2,208 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $16,838,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in Danaher by 15.8% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Danaher by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,964,031 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,490,112,000 after purchasing an additional 139,989 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in 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 period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Danaher by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,552,640 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,265,725,000 after buying an additional 116,299 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Danaher by 17.6% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,582,982 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $996,141,000 after buying an additional 535,254 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Danaher Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of DHR traded down $2.35 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $235.74. The company had a trading volume of 963,607 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,530,447. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $222.53 and a 1 year high of $281.70. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $235.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $253.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $170.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.99, a P/E/G ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.83.

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

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Danaher from $310.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $278.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $315.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Danaher from $309.00 to $305.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $286.80.

About Danaher

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.