Palouse Capital Management Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Palouse Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO - Free Report) by 71.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,802 shares of the medical research company's stock after purchasing an additional 1,166 shares during the period. Palouse Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $1,458,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 1.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,659,943 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $4,719,477,000 after purchasing an additional 127,564 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 11.4% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 9,705 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $5,972,000 after purchasing an additional 995 shares during the last quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. boosted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 9.8% in the third quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 20,579 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $12,730,000 after acquiring an additional 1,837 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 23.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 55,452 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $28,868,000 after acquiring an additional 10,606 shares during the period. Finally, S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. S.E.E.D. Planning Group LLC now owns 10,626 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $5,528,000 after acquiring an additional 618 shares during the period. 89.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TMO shares. Barclays reduced 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 report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $680.00 to $665.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $647.00 to $678.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $767.00 to $718.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. 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 objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $658.00.

Insider Activity at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In other Thermo Fisher Scientific news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $585.59, for a total transaction of $175,677.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,363 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,582,009.17. This trade represents a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $530.26, for a total value of $5,302,600.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 111,192 shares of the company's stock, valued at $58,960,669.92. This represents a 8.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 20,125 shares of company stock valued at $11,231,699 over the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock traded up $7.17 on Thursday, hitting $538.03. The stock had a trading volume of 1,967,770 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,101,941. The firm has a market capitalization of $205.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.55, a PEG ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 0.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $548.10 and a 200 day moving average of $568.36. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a twelve month low of $493.30 and a twelve month 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.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share (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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 23.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.32%. This is an increase 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 is presently 9.44%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Friday, November 15th that permits the company to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the medical research company to repurchase up to 2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.