Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP Reduces Holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP decreased its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 60.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,040 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 1,575 shares during the period. Cognios Beta Neutral Large Cap Fund LP’s holdings in Danaher were worth $241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in DHR. Banco Santander S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $683,000. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted 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 worth $6,156,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted 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 worth $68,707,000 after purchasing an additional 96,395 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted 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 worth $764,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. Finally, Keybank National Association OH boosted 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 worth $137,238,000 after purchasing an additional 2,567 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Danaher news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Raskas sold 23,757 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $252.00, for a total transaction of $5,986,764.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,102 shares in the company, valued at $9,601,704. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 10.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

DHR traded down $2.70 on Wednesday, reaching $250.41. The company had a trading volume of 3,064,441 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,783,958. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $259.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $185.44 billion, a PE ratio of 39.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $248.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.64.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced 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 net margin of 17.26% and a return on equity of 12.25%. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.62 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.36 earnings per share. Danaher’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be given a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s payout ratio is 16.90%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on DHR shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $254.00 to $282.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. Raymond James raised their price target 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. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $270.00.

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.