Share Repurchase Program Approved by Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) Board

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Friday, November 15th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $4.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the medical research company to reacquire up to 2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on TMO shares. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $650.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $600.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Stephens assumed coverage on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set an “overweight” rating and a $680.00 price objective for the company. Bernstein Bank lifted their target price on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $565.00 to $625.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price target on shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific from $625.00 to $620.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 24th. 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, Thermo Fisher Scientific has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $649.33.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Price Performance

Shares of TMO opened at $513.08 on Friday. Thermo Fisher Scientific has a 1 year low of $464.17 and a 1 year high of $627.88. The business has a 50-day moving average of $586.43 and a 200-day moving average of $582.24. The company has a market capitalization of $196.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.26.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $10.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.63 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $5.69 EPS. Thermo Fisher Scientific’s quarterly revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Thermo Fisher Scientific will post 21.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Marc N. Casper sold 10,000 shares of Thermo Fisher Scientific stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $554.29, for a total transaction of $5,542,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 121,192 shares in the company, valued at $67,175,513.68. The trade was a 7.62 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Gianluca Pettiti sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $560.16, for a total transaction of $168,048.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 16,663 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,333,946.08. The trade was a 1.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 37,150 shares of company stock worth $20,651,865 over the last 90 days. 0.34% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.