RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 4,979 Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

RFG Bristol Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 4,979 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $1,143,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Danaher by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,750,122 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $13,715,641,000 after purchasing an additional 315,912 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Danaher by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,358,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,056,996,000 after buying an additional 315,446 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,130,740,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Danaher by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,589,019 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,971,609,000 after buying an additional 441,012 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Danaher by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,578,945 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,051,097,000 after acquiring an additional 26,305 shares during the period. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Brian W. Ellis sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $224.13, for a total value of $1,277,541.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 20,230 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,534,149.90. This represents a 21.98 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on DHR. Bank of America upgraded Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $290.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Danaher from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Raymond James restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of Danaher from $285.00 to $260.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $278.24.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR opened at $200.09 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $213.02 and its 200-day moving average is $235.39. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $196.80 and a 1-year high of $281.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $143.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.82.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The conglomerate reported $2.14 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.14. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 28th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 28th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.24%.

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.