Argentarii LLC Purchases Shares of 1,875 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Argentarii LLC acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 1,875 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $975,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the fourth quarter worth $34,423,000. Coalescence Partners Investment Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 73.5% during the fourth quarter. Coalescence Partners Investment Management LP now owns 28,072 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,604,000 after acquiring an additional 11,895 shares during the period. Pillar Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 2,860,847 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $1,556,689,000 after acquiring an additional 340,263 shares during the period. Finally, Permanent Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter valued at $378,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TMO opened at $531.74 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $549.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $562.32. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 52 week low of $493.30 and a 52 week high of $627.88. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $200.60 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.79.

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

Thermo Fisher Scientific declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Friday, November 15th that allows the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the medical research company to buy up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.41%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $516.67, for a total value of $5,166,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 115,174 shares in the company, valued at $59,506,950.58. The trade was a 7.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 9,825 shares of the business’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 $5,753,421.75. Following the completion of the sale, 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 valued at $11,095,799 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TMO has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $667.00 price target (up previously from $650.00) on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Scotiabank upped their price objective 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 upped their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada set a $693.00 price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $653.23.

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.