Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. Sells 456 Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. lessened its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 26,112 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 456 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $13,584,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TMO. Sargent Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Sargent Investment Group LLC now owns 711 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Old North State Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 14.0% during the fourth quarter. Old North State Wealth Management LLC now owns 528 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $275,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd boosted its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd now owns 14,922 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $7,763,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares during the period. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB grew its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB now owns 84,863 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $44,148,000 after buying an additional 2,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Verity Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc. now owns 488 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $252,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 89.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TMO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays cut their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $620.00 to $610.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $632.00 to $622.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $647.00 to $678.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $667.00 target price (up from $650.00) on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research report on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $658.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.26, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of TMO stock opened at $580.63 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $542.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $571.55. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $493.30 and a fifty-two week high of $627.88. The stock has a market cap of $222.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.13, a P/E/G ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.77.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. On average, analysts forecast that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.27%. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.44%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback 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 generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.