Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. Cuts Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. cut its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,538 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 177 shares during the period. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $3,401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TMO. Allstate Corp increased its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 3,264.2% during the fourth quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 11,371 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,916,000 after acquiring an additional 11,033 shares during the period. RiverFront Investment Group LLC raised its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 27.7% in the 4th quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC now owns 484 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. DnB Asset Management AS grew its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 201,281 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $104,712,000 after buying an additional 2,810 shares in the last quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,118 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $582,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 7.9% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 2,685,896 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,397,284,000 after purchasing an additional 196,242 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on TMO. Royal Bank of Canada set a $693.00 price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $675.00 to $660.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $700.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $653.23.

Insider Transactions at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In other news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 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 value of $175,677.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $516.67, for a total transaction of $5,166,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,506,950.58. The trade was a 7.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,900 shares of company stock valued at $13,106,062 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Down 2.3 %

Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock opened at $499.75 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $188.53 billion, a PE ratio of 30.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $493.30 and a fifty-two week high of $627.88. The business’s fifty day moving average is $541.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $552.80.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share (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%. Analysts anticipate that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.34%. This is a boost from Thermo Fisher Scientific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s payout ratio is 10.41%.

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.