Jennison Associates LLC Trims Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Jennison Associates LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,631 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 159 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Banco Santander S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $683,000. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 26,611 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,156,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 48.1% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 296,996 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $68,707,000 after acquiring an additional 96,395 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in shares of Danaher by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,080 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $764,000 after acquiring an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keybank National Association OH raised its position in shares of Danaher by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 553,155 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $137,238,000 after acquiring an additional 2,567 shares in the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Citigroup increased their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, HSBC raised Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $269.64.

Danaher Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of DHR stock opened at $246.58 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $248.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $231.27. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $182.09 and a fifty-two week high of $259.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $182.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. Danaher had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 16.78%. The business had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.36 EPS. Danaher’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.27 dividend. This is a positive change from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.31%.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In related news, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total value of $5,618,569.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 90,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,644,589.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total value of $5,618,569.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 90,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,644,589.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Rainer Blair sold 47,175 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.22, for a total value of $11,756,953.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,995 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $28,908,273.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 106,565 shares of company stock worth $26,641,364 in the last quarter. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Company 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.