Westbourne Investments Inc. Buys Shares of 1,350 Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR)

Westbourne Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Danaher Co. (NYSE:DHR - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,350 shares of the conglomerate's stock, valued at approximately $310,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of DHR. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Danaher in the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Hurley Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Danaher during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Pineridge Advisors LLC raised its position in Danaher by 63.3% in the 4th quarter. Pineridge Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. 79.05% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Christopher Paul Riley sold 15,805 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,179 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,005,442. This represents a 51.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 11.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Danaher Stock Performance

NYSE:DHR traded down $5.91 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $191.49. 1,597,876 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,403,409. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $199.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $220.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $137.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.80. Danaher Co. has a fifty-two week low of $171.00 and a fifty-two week high of $281.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.40.

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

Danaher Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 28th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 28th. This is a boost from Danaher's previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. Danaher's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on DHR shares. Guggenheim reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Danaher in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Danaher from $280.00 to $260.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Danaher from $280.00 to $240.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Danaher from $260.00 to $240.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Danaher in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $264.40.

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.