Here is What Hedge Funds Think About Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO)

Is Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) a splendid investment now? Investors who are in the know are betting on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund bets increased by 7 recently.

At the moment, there are dozens of indicators market participants can use to track the equity markets. A couple of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading movement. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best investment managers can beat the broader indices by a healthy amount (see just how much).

Equally as beneficial, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the world of equities. There are a number of reasons for a corporate insider to cut shares of his or her company, but just one, very simple reason why they would initiate a purchase. Many academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this tactic if investors know where to look (learn more here).

With all of this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the recent action surrounding Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO).

How are hedge funds trading Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)?

At the end of the first quarter, a total of 50 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of 16% from one quarter earlier. With hedge funds’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their stakes considerably.

Of the funds we track, Eagle Capital Management, managed by Boykin Curry, holds the biggest position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO). Eagle Capital Management has a $427.8 million position in the stock, comprising 2.6% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital, with a $383.2 million position; 4.8% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other hedge funds that are bullish include Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick’s First Pacific Advisors LLC, Larry Robbins’s Glenview Capital and Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital.

As aggregate interest increased, some big names have been driving this bullishness. First Pacific Advisors LLC, managed by Robert Rodriguez and Steven Romick, initiated the biggest position in Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO). First Pacific Advisors LLC had 295.7 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital also initiated a $217.8 million position during the quarter. The other funds with brand new TMO positions are Dan Loeb’s Third Point, Jacob Gottlieb’s Visium Asset Management, and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

How have insiders been trading Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO)?

Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past half-year. Over the latest half-year time frame, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) has seen zero unique insiders purchasing, and 8 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s check out hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO). These stocks are Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (NYSE:MTD), Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH), Quest Diagnostics Inc (NYSE:DGX), Life Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:LIFE), and Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A). This group of stocks are the members of the medical laboratories & research industry and their market caps resemble TMO’s market cap.

With the returns shown by Insider Monkey’s studies, retail investors must always watch hedge fund and insider trading activity, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) applies perfectly to this mantra.

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