Heck Capital Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 1,090 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $567,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Missouri Trust & Investment Co bought a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. bought a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the third quarter worth $50,000. 89.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on TMO. Barclays cut their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $620.00 to $610.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $605.00 target price on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $680.00 to $665.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $632.00 to $622.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $655.64.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

Shares of TMO opened at $598.40 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.76. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 52 week low of $493.30 and a 52 week high of $627.88. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $541.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $570.96. 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 (NYSE:TMO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.94 by $0.16. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 14.48%. Equities analysts forecast that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 21.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.78%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its Board of Directors has authorized 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 believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In related news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.26, for a total transaction of $5,302,600.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 111,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,960,669.92. This trade represents a 8.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 29,000 shares of company stock worth $15,859,540 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Company 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.