Fisher Asset Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,636,558 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 65,586 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $1,630,896,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Lafayette Investments Inc. raised its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.1% during the second quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 830 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $459,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. IFG Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. IFG Advisors LLC now owns 532 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. raised its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.8% during the second quarter. Patrick M Sweeney & Associates Inc. now owns 1,031 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $570,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the period. Drive Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 0.9% during the second quarter. Drive Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,123 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,175,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quent Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 1,886 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,043,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total transaction of $168,048.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 16,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,333,946.08. This represents a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $552.86, for a total transaction of $4,975,740.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,608 shares in the company, valued at $8,076,178.88. This represents a 38.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 37,150 shares of company stock worth $20,651,865. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TMO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised Thermo Fisher Scientific to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $625.00 to $620.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $632.00 to $622.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Thermo Fisher Scientific presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.33.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Price Performance

Shares of TMO stock opened at $513.26 on Monday. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 12 month low of $480.57 and a 12 month high of $627.88. The firm has a market cap of $196.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.18, a PEG ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $575.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $580.20.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The medical research company reported $5.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.25 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $10.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.63 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 14.48%. The business’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.69 EPS. Research analysts expect that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 21.67 EPS for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Friday, November 15th that authorizes the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the medical research company to reacquire up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s payout ratio is 9.78%.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc provides life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services in the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company's Life Sciences Solutions segment offers reagents, instruments, and consumables for biological and medical research, discovery, and production of drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnosis of infections and diseases; and solutions include biosciences, genetic sciences, and bio production to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, clinical, healthcare, academic, and government markets.