Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) Shares Bought by B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR – Get Rating) by 16.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,717 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,407 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $2,511,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in DHR. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 13,959.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bishop Rock Capital L.P. now owns 3,955,166 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $15,601,000 after purchasing an additional 3,927,034 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 515.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,348,688 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $606,643,000 after buying an additional 1,966,793 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 53,690,131 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $13,867,623,000 after buying an additional 995,501 shares in the last quarter. Castleview Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 23,726.6% in the 2nd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 791,996 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $3,124,000 after buying an additional 788,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of Danaher by 70.1% in the 2nd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 1,376,545 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $348,982,000 after buying an additional 567,259 shares in the last quarter. 77.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on DHR. Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Danaher from $340.00 to $320.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Danaher in a research report on Tuesday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $310.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Danaher from $277.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $321.00 to $309.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $310.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Raymond C. Stevens sold 8,410 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.27, for a total transaction of $2,222,510.70. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,218,282.38. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 11.20% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Trading Down 2.6 %

Shares of DHR stock opened at $242.96 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $177.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.18, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.80. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $233.71 and a 1-year high of $303.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.52. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $258.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $262.40.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The conglomerate reported $2.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.46 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $8.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.90 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 22.91% and a return on equity of 17.97%. The company’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.69 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 10.14 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.27 per share. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 30th. This is an increase from Danaher’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 10.36%.

About Danaher

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Danaher Corp. engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services. It operates through the following segments: Biotechnology, Life Sciences, Diagnostics, and Environmental and Applied Solutions. The Biotechnology segment includes the bioprocessing and discovery and medical businesses and offers a range of tools, consumables, and services.