UBS Group Increases Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) Price Target to $715.00

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) had its target price upped by research analysts at UBS Group from $700.00 to $715.00 in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the medical research company’s stock. UBS Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 19.23% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $632.00 to $622.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $605.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $630.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $654.27.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Performance

NYSE TMO traded down $7.04 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $599.70. 1,275,988 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,068,463. Thermo Fisher Scientific has a 1 year low of $493.30 and a 1 year high of $627.88. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $539.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $570.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a market capitalization of $229.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.89 and a beta of 0.76.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $6.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.94 by $0.16. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a net margin of 14.48% and a return on equity of 17.49%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Thermo Fisher Scientific will post 21.69 earnings per share for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $530.26, for a total transaction of $5,302,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 111,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,960,669.92. This represents a 8.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 29,000 shares of company stock worth $15,859,540 in the last three months. 0.34% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,318,961 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $10,100,655,000 after purchasing an additional 124,996 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $4,872,761,000 after purchasing an additional 1,294,453 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $4,719,477,000 after purchasing an additional 127,564 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 5.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,853,133 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,935,377,000 after purchasing an additional 262,062 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 2.6% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 2,636,558 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,630,896,000 after purchasing an additional 65,586 shares during the period. 89.23% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.