Childress Capital Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Childress Capital Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 7.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,323 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 106 shares during the period. Childress Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $688,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in 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 valued at $876,152,000 after buying an additional 1,414,556 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 19.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,877,459 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,872,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,453 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 3rd quarter worth about $254,412,000. Lindsell Train Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 4th quarter valued at about $211,858,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake 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 worth $2,935,377,000 after acquiring 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

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on TMO shares. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research report on Monday, October 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $680.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered 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. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $700.00 to $715.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $605.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Thermo Fisher Scientific has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $658.00.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:TMO opened at $593.38 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.66. The company has a market capitalization of $226.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.90, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.77. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $541.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $571.18. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 52 week low of $493.30 and a 52 week high of $627.88.

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

Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement

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

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Friday, November 15th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the medical research company to buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $558.12, for a total value of $5,581,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 33,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,757,296.96. This trade represents a 22.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last three months, insiders sold 29,000 shares of company stock valued at $15,859,540. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.