New York State Teachers Retirement System Lowers Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

New York State Teachers Retirement System decreased its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 331,776 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 15,720 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned about 0.09% of Thermo Fisher Scientific worth $172,600,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in TMO. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Barrett & Company Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Missouri Trust & Investment Co purchased a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Endeavor Private Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on TMO shares. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $630.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $605.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of 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 boosted their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $565.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Thermo Fisher Scientific currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $658.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.26, for a total value of $5,302,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 111,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,960,669.92. This represents a 8.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 9,825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $585.59, for a total transaction of $5,753,421.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,984,264.64. This trade represents a 26.47 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,125 shares of company stock worth $11,231,699 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

NYSE:TMO opened at $532.63 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $548.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $571.28. 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 market cap of $203.73 billion, a PE ratio of 32.22, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 0.77. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1-year low of $493.30 and a 1-year high of $627.88.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, equities analysts expect that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.28 EPS for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, November 15th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in outstanding 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 usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.