Ballast Inc. Buys 443 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Ballast Inc. increased its position in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 11.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,431 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after purchasing an additional 443 shares during the quarter. Ballast Inc.’s holdings in Danaher were worth $1,025,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in Danaher during the third quarter valued at $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the third quarter worth about $34,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on DHR. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of Danaher in a research note on Monday, December 18th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Danaher from $255.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 31st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Danaher from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $215.00 to $205.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 7th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on Danaher from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $266.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Danaher

In related news, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total value of $826,032.35. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 14,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,548,498.35. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of Danaher stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $251.15, for a total transaction of $826,032.35. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 14,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,548,498.35. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock valued at $8,265,802. Company insiders own 11.10% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Price Performance

DHR stock opened at $249.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68. Danaher Co. has a 52-week low of $182.09 and a 52-week high of $259.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $184.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.08, a PEG ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $247.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $230.53.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The conglomerate reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.91 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $6.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. Danaher’s revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.87 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. 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%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.90%.

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.