Maple Capital Management Inc. Lowers Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Maple Capital Management Inc. lessened its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 614 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 32 shares during the quarter. Maple Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $319,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 0.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 124,996 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 19.7% during the third 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,659,943 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,719,477,000 after buying an additional 127,564 shares during the last quarter. 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 valued at $2,935,377,000 after buying an additional 262,062 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 65,586 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America lowered their price objective on 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. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada set a $693.00 target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $647.00 to $678.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Thermo Fisher Scientific has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $656.86.

Insider Buying and Selling at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $585.59, for a total transaction of $175,677.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,363 shares in the company, valued at $9,582,009.17. This represents a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 9,825 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $585.59, for a total value of $5,753,421.75. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 have sold a total of 20,125 shares of company stock worth $11,231,699 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Price Performance

NYSE:TMO opened at $528.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The company has a market capitalization of $199.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.77. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 12 month low of $493.30 and a 12 month high of $627.88. The business’s 50-day moving average is $549.37 and its 200 day moving average is $565.44.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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, equities research analysts forecast that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Thermo Fisher Scientific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.33%. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s dividend payout ratio is 10.41%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan 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 reacquire up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Company 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.