Verity Asset Management Inc. Buys 30 Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Verity Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 488 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 30 shares during the quarter. Verity Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,318,961 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $10,100,655,000 after acquiring an additional 124,996 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 7,877,459 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,872,761,000 after buying an additional 1,294,453 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,659,943 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,719,477,000 after acquiring an additional 127,564 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 5.7% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.6% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,636,558 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,630,896,000 after purchasing an additional 65,586 shares in the last quarter. 89.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on TMO shares. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $675.00 to $660.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $680.00 to $665.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $767.00 to $718.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $647.00 to $678.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $658.00.

Insider Transactions at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In other 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 value of $5,302,600.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE TMO opened at $580.63 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $542.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $571.55. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1 year low of $493.30 and a 1 year high of $627.88. The company has a market cap of $222.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.13, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.77.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Research analysts anticipate that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 currently 9.44%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Friday, November 15th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the medical research company to reacquire 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.

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.