S.A. Mason LLC Increases Stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

S.A. Mason LLC increased its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 23.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 476 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 90 shares during the quarter. S.A. Mason LLC’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $248,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of TMO. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 76,051.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,416,416 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $876,152,000 after buying an additional 1,414,556 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,877,459 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,872,761,000 after buying an additional 1,294,453 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 3rd quarter valued at about $254,412,000. Lindsell Train Ltd purchased a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the fourth quarter worth about $211,858,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 5.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,853,133 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,935,377,000 after purchasing an additional 262,062 shares during the period. 89.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $630.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird dropped 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. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $656.00 to $686.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank started coverage on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $605.00 target price for the company. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.64.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

Thermo Fisher Scientific stock opened at $598.40 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $541.37 and its 200-day moving average is $571.07. The company has a market cap of $228.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.77. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 12 month low of $493.30 and a 12 month high of $627.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.94 by $0.16. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 17.51% and a net margin of 14.78%. Equities analysts anticipate that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.44%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 9,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.86, for a total transaction of $4,975,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,076,178.88. This trade represents a 38.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 29,000 shares of company stock valued at $15,859,540 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Profile

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.