Solid fundamentals helping propel Thermo Fisher Scientific higher

Medical equipment provider Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) has been trending higher for over two and a half years. Sure the stock pulled back in the fourth quarter of 2018, but even then it held up better than most stocks. One of the biggest reasons behind the rally has been good, consistent fundamentals.

Over the last three years the company has been able to grow earnings at a rate of 15% per year while sales have grown at a rate of 14% per year. In the most recent quarterly report, earnings increased by 11% while sales increased by 4%. Analysts expect the company to see earnings increase by 10% for 2019 as a whole while sales are expected to increase by 4.4%.

The company’s management efficiency measurements are above average as well with a return on equity of 17% and a profit margin of 21%.

The Tickeron Fundamental Analysis Overview shows a profit vs. risk rating of 9 for Thermo Fisher, indicating low risk on high returns. The average profit vs. risk rating for the industry is 75, placing this stock better than average.

The Tickeron Valuation Rating of 11 indicates that the company is seriously undervalued in the industry. A rating of 1 points to the most undervalued stocks, while a rating of 100 points to the most overvalued stocks. This rating compares market capitalization estimated by our proprietary formula with the current market capitalization.

The daily chart shows that the stock has been trending higher since the end of December and there is a trend line connecting the lows from the last five months. The slope of the trend isn’t that high, but that seems to go along with the consistency of the fundamentals. The stock hasn’t rocketed higher and then fallen back, it has been on a consistent climb higher.

We see that the stock just recently hit the trend line again and that is the second time it has done so in August. The overbought/oversold indicators dropped in to oversold territory early in August and then reversed, but pulled back down again this past week. The daily stochastic readings made a bullish crossover on August 16 and that could be a good sign for the stock.

The stock also broke below its lower Bollinger band in early August and according to the Tickeron Technical Analysis Overview, in 22 of 31 cases where TMO's price broke its lower Bollinger Band, its price rose further in the following month. That puts the odds of a rally at 71% based on the past statistics.

Taking a look at the weekly chart we see that Thermo Fisher closed below its 52-week moving average for one week back in December and that is the only time the stock has done that in the last two and a half years.

The weekly stochastic readings have recently dipped below the 50 level for the first time since December and for only the seventh time in the last two and a half years. Almost all of the previous instances have marked good buying points for investors.

The sentiment toward Thermo Fisher is relatively bullish, but it seems to be warranted based on how well the company and stock have performed in recent years. There are 17 analysts following the stock at this time and 14 have it rated as a “buy”. There are also two “hold” ratings and one “sell” rating. This puts the overall buy percentage at 82.4% and that is above average.

The short interest ratio is at 1.9 currently and that is below average. This means that both analysts and short sellers are slightly more bullish toward Thermo Fisher than the average stock, but with the fundamental and technical picture, the bullish sentiment seems to be appropriate.