Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Reduces Holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund decreased its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 66,106 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,215 shares during the quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $40,891,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TMO. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 76,051.4% during 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 during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 19.7% during the third 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. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 32.2% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,481,257 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,372,157,000 after buying an additional 604,895 shares during the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the third quarter worth about $254,412,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 743.6% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 336,537 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $186,105,000 after buying an additional 296,646 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of TMO opened at $521.67 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $569.98 and a two-hundred day moving average of $578.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.63. The company has a market capitalization of $199.54 billion, a PE ratio of 32.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.79. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $480.57 and a fifty-two week high of $627.88.

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

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Friday, November 15th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the medical research company to repurchase up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 Activity

In related news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $554.29, for a total transaction of $5,542,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,175,513.68. This represents a 7.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total transaction of $168,048.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,333,946.08. This trade represents a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 37,150 shares of company stock valued at $20,651,865 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on TMO. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $632.00 to $622.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Bernstein Bank lifted their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $565.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $670.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $655.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $680.00 to $665.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Four equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.33.

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.