Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,272 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 75 shares during the quarter. Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Danaher were worth $758,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in DHR. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in Danaher during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in Danaher during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Financial Connections Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Institutional investors own 79.05% of the company’s stock.

Danaher Stock Up 0.3 %

DHR stock traded up $0.82 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $249.58. 1,471,344 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,730,175. The stock has a market cap of $184.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.82 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.85 and a quick ratio of 1.51. Danaher Co. has a 1 year low of $182.09 and a 1 year high of $259.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $248.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $233.19.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.72 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $5.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.62 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.78% and a return on equity of 11.43%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.36 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 28th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.43%. Danaher’s dividend payout ratio is 18.31%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total transaction of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, Director Walter G. Lohr sold 3,289 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,548,498.35. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 103,984 shares of company stock valued at $25,997,094. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Danaher from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Danaher from $259.00 to $271.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. HSBC upgraded Danaher from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $250.00 to $280.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $267.31.

About Danaher

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.