Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Sells 28 Shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lowered its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) by 25.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 81 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 28 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific were worth $42,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Keel Point LLC boosted its holdings in Thermo Fisher Scientific by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Keel Point LLC now owns 8,525 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $4,435,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. LGT Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter worth $156,000. Third Point LLC bought a new position in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific during the fourth quarter valued at $182,080,000. Unisphere Establishment grew its holdings in shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 1,700,000 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $884,391,000 after purchasing an additional 100,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Navigoe LLC bought a new position in Thermo Fisher Scientific during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.23% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on TMO. Morgan Stanley lifted 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 note on Friday, January 31st. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $605.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Argus cut their price target on Thermo Fisher Scientific from $620.00 to $470.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $651.00 to $637.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $585.00 to $500.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $607.43.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Stock Up 0.9 %

Thermo Fisher Scientific stock opened at $423.69 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $476.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $521.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.66, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has a 1-year low of $409.85 and a 1-year high of $627.88. The company has a market cap of $159.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.86.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The medical research company reported $5.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.10 by $0.05. Thermo Fisher Scientific had a return on equity of 17.51% and a net margin of 14.78%. The firm had revenue of $10.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.23 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.11 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Thermo Fisher Scientific’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s payout ratio is currently 10.09%.

Insider Activity at Thermo Fisher Scientific

In other news, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $585.59, for a total value of $175,677.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 16,363 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,582,009.17. This trade represents a 1.80 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Stephen Williamson sold 9,825 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $585.59, for a total value of $5,753,421.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,296 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,984,264.64. This trade represents a 26.47 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,200 shares of company stock worth $13,235,041. Insiders own 0.33% of the company’s stock.

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.