Highland Capital Management LLC Reduces Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Highland Capital Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 1.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,366 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 391 shares during the period. Thermo Fisher Scientific comprises 1.0% of Highland Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $17,346,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TMO. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 318.2% in the second quarter. Signature Resources Capital Management LLC now owns 46 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 35 shares during the period. LifeSteps Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Northwest Financial Advisors bought a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1,275.0% during the 4th quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 55 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $617.21, for a total transaction of $6,172,100.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 123,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $76,420,473.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $617.21, for a total transaction of $6,172,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 123,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $76,420,473.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Lisa P. Britt sold 3,624 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $613.02, for a total value of $2,221,584.48. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 13,699 shares in the company, valued at $8,397,760.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,084 shares of company stock valued at $19,767,092. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on TMO. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $600.00 to $615.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $648.00 to $658.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Barclays cut their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $615.00 to $600.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $615.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Thermo Fisher Scientific presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $618.94.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock traded up $2.26 during trading on Friday, hitting $606.12. 777,265 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,530,541. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 52-week low of $415.60 and a 52-week high of $622.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $231.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.88, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $574.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $573.97.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $5.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.13 by $0.24. The business had revenue of $10.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.50 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 18.22% and a net margin of 14.69%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $5.15 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 21.72 EPS for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.01%.

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.