Sanctuary Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 11.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 61,514 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 6,470 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $38,051,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TMO. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 318.2% in the 2nd quarter. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC now owns 46 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. New Millennium Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Stephens Consulting LLC boosted its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 116.0% in the second quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC now owns 54 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on TMO. UBS Group raised Thermo Fisher Scientific to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Barclays dropped their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $620.00 to $610.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $680.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $630.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $625.00 to $620.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Thermo Fisher Scientific currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $649.33.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Down 0.3 %

Thermo Fisher Scientific stock opened at $534.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $553.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $574.46. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1 year low of $491.47 and a 1 year high of $627.88. The stock has a market cap of $204.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.50, a PEG ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.77.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The medical research company reported $5.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.25 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $10.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.63 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $5.69 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 21.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors 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 0.29%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.78%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase 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 reacquire up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $554.29, for a total value of $5,542,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 121,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $67,175,513.68. This represents a 7.62 % 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. Also, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total value of $168,048.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,663 shares in the company, valued at $9,333,946.08. This trade represents a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 47,150 shares of company stock valued at $25,954,465 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.