Studio Investment Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Studio Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 3.4% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 794 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the period. Studio Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $491,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TMO. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,054,621 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,843,848,000 after acquiring an additional 156,675 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 32.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,481,257 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,372,157,000 after purchasing an additional 604,895 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,443,937 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,511,746,000 after buying an additional 61,017 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,740,482 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $962,482,000 after buying an additional 20,075 shares during the period. Finally, Unisphere Establishment grew its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 7.1% during the second quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 1,500,000 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $829,500,000 after acquiring an additional 100,000 shares during the period. 89.23% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

Shares of TMO opened at $515.26 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $197.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.30, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.63. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1 year low of $480.57 and a 1 year high of $627.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $577.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $580.52.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The medical research company reported $5.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $10.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.63 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $5.69 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 21.67 EPS for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Friday, November 15th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the medical research company to purchase up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the business’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 directly owns 16,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,333,946.08. The trade was a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 9,000 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.86, for a total value of $4,975,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 14,608 shares in the company, valued at $8,076,178.88. The trade was a 38.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 37,150 shares of company stock valued at $20,651,865. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TMO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $680.00 to $665.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Bernstein Bank boosted their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $565.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $632.00 to $622.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Stephens assumed coverage on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $680.00 price objective for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Thermo Fisher Scientific has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.