Earnings
Thermo Fisher beats third-quarter forecasts as organic growth picks up to 6%
The lab-equipment maker's adjusted earnings rose 15% to $6.68 a share on $12.14 billion of revenue, with updated 2026 guidance left for its earnings call.
HedgeWeekly News Desk ·
Thermo Fisher Scientific reported third-quarter adjusted earnings of $6.68 a share on Wednesday, up 15% from a year earlier and ahead of the $6.40 consensus, as revenue rose 9% to $12.14 billion. Analysts had expected about $11.95 billion in sales, according to Investing.com and MarketBeat.
Organic growth, which strips out deals and currency, reached 6% in the quarter ended September 26, faster than the 4% organic pace for the first nine months of the year as a whole. Acquisitions added a further 3 points. Adjusted operating margin widened to 24.5% from 23.3%, and GAAP diluted earnings rose 9% to $4.64 a share. Quarterly free cash flow climbed to $2.12 billion from $1.84 billion.
Laboratory Products and Biopharma Services, the largest unit, grew revenue to $6.86 billion from $5.97 billion. Analytical Instruments rose to $2.00 billion with its margin jumping to 26.9% from 22.6%, and Life Sciences Solutions increased to $2.72 billion. Specialty Diagnostics was the only segment to shrink, to $1.10 billion from $1.17 billion, in the quarter in which Thermo Fisher completed the sale of its microbiology business. The company did not put new 2026 figures in its release, saying it would update guidance on its 7 a.m. ET call.
For investors in life-science tools, the beat extends a streak: MarketBeat data show Thermo Fisher had topped earnings consensus in each of the previous eight quarters. The company has also been spending heavily: it paid $8.88 billion for acquisitions in the first nine months, bought back $4.0 billion of stock, and its cash pile fell to $5.46 billion from $9.85 billion at the end of 2025 while long-term obligations rose to $39.1 billion. The guidance update will show how much of the third-quarter pickup management expects to carry into year-end.