Colonial Trust Co SC Buys 3,437 Shares of Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Colonial Trust Co SC boosted its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 288.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,628 shares of the conglomerate's stock after buying an additional 3,437 shares during the quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC's holdings in Danaher were worth $1,062,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Danaher during the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Danaher by 63.3% during the 4th quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,390.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,179 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,005,442. This trade represents a 51.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 11.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DHR has been the subject of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Danaher from $231.00 to $225.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Guggenheim reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Danaher in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Danaher from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $260.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on Danaher from $275.00 to $240.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Danaher has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $264.40.

Danaher Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE:DHR traded down $5.40 during trading on Friday, hitting $189.42. The company had a trading volume of 4,535,806 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,411,207. The stock has a market cap of $135.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $198.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $219.46. Danaher Co. has a one year low of $171.00 and a one year high of $281.70.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.26. The business had revenue of $5.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.58 billion. Danaher had a net margin of 16.33% and a return on equity of 10.82%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Danaher Co. will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Danaher Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be given a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.85%.

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.