Calamos Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Calamos Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) by 36.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 329,902 shares of the conglomerate's stock after purchasing an additional 87,658 shares during the period. Calamos Advisors LLC's holdings in Danaher were worth $76,320,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Danaher in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in Danaher in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. First Capital Advisors Group LLC. bought a new position in Danaher in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. BOK Financial Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the 3rd quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC bought a new position in Danaher during the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 79.05% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on DHR. Raymond James lifted 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. StockNews.com cut Danaher from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Danaher from $250.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. Barclays raised their target price on Danaher from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on Danaher from $260.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $268.27.

Insider Transactions at Danaher

In other 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,029,891.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Teri List sold 3,289 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.32, for a total value of $816,724.48. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 19,726 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,898,360.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Georgeann Couchara sold 2,622 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $242.67, for a total value of $636,280.74. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,244 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,029,891.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 32,957 shares of company stock worth $8,265,802. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Down 1.3 %

Danaher stock traded down $3.02 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $236.37. The stock had a trading volume of 4,261,040 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,727,856. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.68. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $249.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $229.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.83. Danaher Co. has a 1-year low of $182.09 and a 1-year high of $259.00.

Danaher (NYSE:DHR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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. Danaher had a return on equity of 12.25% and a net margin of 17.26%. The firm had revenue of $6.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.10 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.87 earnings per share. The business's revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Danaher Co. will post 7.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.27 per share. This is an increase from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 27th. Danaher's payout ratio 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.