Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) Competitors

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) and Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, risk, community ranking, profitability, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, earnings and institutional ownership.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of TMO or A?

89.2% of Thermo Fisher Scientific shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Thermo Fisher Scientific shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend TMO or A?

Thermo Fisher Scientific presently has a consensus target price of $607.43, indicating a potential upside of 46.91%. Agilent Technologies has a consensus target price of $143.00, indicating a potential upside of 26.01%. Given Thermo Fisher Scientific's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Thermo Fisher Scientific is more favorable than Agilent Technologies.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Thermo Fisher Scientific	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.81
Agilent Technologies	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.46

Is TMO or A a better dividend stock?

Thermo Fisher Scientific pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Agilent Technologies pays an annual dividend of $0.99 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Thermo Fisher Scientific pays out 10.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Agilent Technologies pays out 22.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Thermo Fisher Scientific has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Agilent Technologies has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years. Agilent Technologies is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is TMO or A more profitable?

Agilent Technologies has a net margin of 19.27% compared to Thermo Fisher Scientific's net margin of 14.78%. Agilent Technologies' return on equity of 25.56% beat Thermo Fisher Scientific's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Thermo Fisher Scientific	14.78%	17.51%	8.52%
Agilent Technologies	19.27%	25.56%	13.47%

Does the media favor TMO or A?

In the previous week, Thermo Fisher Scientific had 24 more articles in the media than Agilent Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 49 mentions for Thermo Fisher Scientific and 25 mentions for Agilent Technologies. Agilent Technologies' average media sentiment score of 1.31 beat Thermo Fisher Scientific's score of 1.18 indicating that Agilent Technologies is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Thermo Fisher Scientific	35 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Agilent Technologies	16 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, TMO or A?

Thermo Fisher Scientific has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Agilent Technologies has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in TMO or A?

Thermo Fisher Scientific received 224 more outperform votes than Agilent Technologies when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.70% of users gave Thermo Fisher Scientific an outperform vote while only 71.01% of users gave Agilent Technologies an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Thermo Fisher Scientific	Outperform Votes 1091 80.70%	Underperform Votes 261 19.30%
Agilent Technologies	Outperform Votes 867 71.01%	Underperform Votes 354 28.99%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, TMO or A?

Thermo Fisher Scientific has higher revenue and earnings than Agilent Technologies. Thermo Fisher Scientific is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Agilent Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Thermo Fisher Scientific	$42.90B	3.64	$6.34B	$17.05	24.25
Agilent Technologies	$6.51B	4.97	$1.29B	$4.35	26.09

Summary

Thermo Fisher Scientific beats Agilent Technologies on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.