Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Sells 36,714 Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans trimmed its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 30.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 82,905 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 36,714 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $51,282,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the first quarter worth $1,661,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 23.0% in the first quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 321 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $187,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in the first quarter worth $1,161,000. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 105.1% in the first quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 4,042 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,351,000 after buying an additional 2,071 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ossiam lifted its stake in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 13.1% in the first quarter. Ossiam now owns 10,422 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $6,057,000 after buying an additional 1,205 shares during the last quarter. 89.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $680.00 to $665.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $670.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $632.00 to $622.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $620.00 to $610.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.33.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Down 2.3 %

NYSE TMO opened at $501.50 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.63. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 52 week low of $465.90 and a 52 week high of $627.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $191.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $584.05 and a 200-day moving average of $581.90.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The medical research company reported $5.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.25 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $10.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.63 billion. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 17.49% and a net margin of 14.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.69 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 21.67 EPS for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s dividend payout ratio is 9.78%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that its board has approved a share buyback program 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 programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total value of $168,048.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,333,946.08. This represents a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 9,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $552.86, for a total value of $4,975,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,608 shares in the company, valued at $8,076,178.88. The trade was a 38.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 37,150 shares of company stock worth $20,651,865 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.34% of the company’s stock.

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.