J. Stern & Co. LLP Purchases 1,415 Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 2.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 54,340 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 1,415 shares during the quarter. Thermo Fisher Scientific accounts for approximately 3.6% of J. Stern & Co. LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. J. Stern & Co. LLP’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $33,613,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Principal Street Partners LLC grew its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 102.1% during the third quarter. Principal Street Partners LLC now owns 764 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $473,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 7.2% during the third quarter. Avestar Capital LLC now owns 3,198 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,979,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 2,507 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,551,000 after buying an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 10,158 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $6,283,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 19.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,877,459 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,872,761,000 after acquiring an additional 1,294,453 shares during the period. 89.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Up 0.2 %

Thermo Fisher Scientific stock traded up $0.94 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $514.20. 3,063,549 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,502,132. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.79. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 52-week low of $480.57 and a 52-week high of $627.88. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $573.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $579.75.

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

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Friday, November 15th that authorizes the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the medical research company to purchase up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders 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 is Friday, December 13th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s payout ratio is currently 9.78%.

Insider Activity

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Michael A. Boxer sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total value of $1,120,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,134,197.76. This represents a 13.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,150 shares of company stock worth $20,651,865 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on TMO. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $767.00 to $718.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Bernstein Bank upped their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $565.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $630.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $670.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.33.

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.