Sargent Investment Group LLC Has $2.38 Million Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Sargent Investment Group LLC increased its position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 19.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 10,280 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,678 shares during the period. Sargent Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stonebrook Private Inc. bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $224,000. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 10,405 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,407,000 after buying an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in shares of Danaher by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 968,947 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $224,246,000 after acquiring an additional 104,627 shares during the last quarter. White Pine Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Danaher by 21.1% during the 4th quarter. White Pine Capital LLC now owns 2,436 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 424 shares during the period. Finally, Dohj LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth approximately $377,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Danaher

In other news, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total value of $5,618,569.18. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 90,412 shares in the company, valued at $22,644,589.52. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, EVP Joakim Weidemanis sold 22,433 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.46, for a total value of $5,618,569.18. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 90,412 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,644,589.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total transaction of $816,724.48. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,726 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,898,360.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 106,565 shares of company stock worth $26,641,364. Corporate insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Performance

Shares of DHR traded up $0.78 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $246.58. The stock had a trading volume of 2,710,446 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,710,897. The firm has a market cap of $182.64 billion, a PE ratio of 41.79, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $248.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $231.16. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $182.09 and a one year high of $259.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.85, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $5.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.36 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th were given a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 27th. This is a boost from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Danaher’s payout ratio is presently 18.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on DHR. Raymond James raised their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, TD Cowen increased their target price on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $269.64.

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.