Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Lowers Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lowered its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 529,494 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 10,874 shares during the quarter. Thermo Fisher Scientific makes up about 1.9% of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $275,459,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Barrett & Company Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Pillar Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Missouri Trust & Investment Co acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TMO shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $700.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Scotiabank upped their target price on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $605.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted 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. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, January 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued 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 price target of $653.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 9,825 shares of the business’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 $5,753,421.75. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,296 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,984,264.64. The trade was a 26.47 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 115,174 shares in the company, valued at $59,506,950.58. This represents a 7.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,900 shares of company stock worth $13,106,062 over the last ninety days. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Price Performance

Thermo Fisher Scientific stock opened at $499.75 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.66. The company has a market cap of $188.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.23, a PEG ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.79. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1 year low of $493.30 and a 1 year high of $627.88. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $541.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $552.80.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.94 by $0.16. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 17.51% and a net margin of 14.78%. Sell-side analysts predict 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 is Friday, March 14th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s payout ratio is 10.41%.

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.