Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. Increases Stock Position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 4.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 40,587 shares of the medical research company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,785 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $21,114,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in TMO. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 19.7% in 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. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 68,617.0% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 762,759 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $396,810,000 after buying an additional 761,649 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the fourth quarter valued at about $377,901,000. Lindsell Train Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the fourth quarter valued at about $211,858,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 15.0% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,810,128 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,461,913,000 after acquiring an additional 366,191 shares during the period. 89.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In related news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $585.59, for a total transaction of $175,677.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,363 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,582,009.17. The trade was a 1.80 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 9,825 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were 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 owns 27,296 shares in the company, valued at $15,984,264.64. The trade was a 26.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,900 shares of company stock worth $13,106,062. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on TMO. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $667.00 price target (up from $650.00) on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $647.00 to $678.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $700.00 to $715.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $605.00 to $650.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $653.23.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of TMO opened at $518.58 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $195.64 billion, a PE ratio of 31.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.79. The company’s fifty day moving average is $546.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $556.94. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $493.30 and a fifty-two week high of $627.88. 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 (NYSE:TMO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.94 by $0.16. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a net margin of 14.78% and a return on equity of 17.51%. Analysts forecast 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.43 per share. This is a positive change from Thermo Fisher Scientific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.33%. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s payout ratio is presently 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.