BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Has $111.84 Million Stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lifted its position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 4.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 180,801 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,727 shares during the quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $111,838,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TMO. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 76,051.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,416,416 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $876,152,000 after acquiring an additional 1,414,556 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the first quarter valued at approximately $705,636,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 32.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,481,257 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,372,157,000 after buying an additional 604,895 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific in the 3rd quarter valued at $254,412,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 743.6% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 336,537 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $186,105,000 after acquiring an additional 296,646 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TMO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Raymond James raised their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $680.00 to $665.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $670.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Bernstein Bank boosted their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $565.00 to $625.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $630.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $649.33.

Insider Activity at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In related news, SVP Michael A. Boxer sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total transaction of $1,120,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 12,736 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,134,197.76. This represents a 13.57 % 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, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total transaction of $168,048.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,663 shares in the company, valued at $9,333,946.08. This represents a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 37,150 shares of company stock valued at $20,651,865. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE TMO opened at $512.86 on Thursday. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 12 month low of $476.45 and a 12 month high of $627.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.63, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $196.17 billion, a PE ratio of 32.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.79. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $579.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $580.98.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last released its 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. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 17.49%. The business had revenue of $10.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.69 earnings per share. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. will post 21.67 EPS for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s payout ratio is 9.78%.

Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Friday, November 15th that permits the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the medical research company to reacquire up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.