Thermo Fisher Delivers Consistent Growth and Cash Flow

Thermo Fisher, a sector leader and long-term favourite offers high‑quality, diversified exposure to the growing life‑sciences ecosystem. The business is anchored by recurring consumables and services that accompany a large installed base of instruments.

This supports ongoing R&D, acquisitions, and shareholder returns and from a strategic standpoint, the company’s scale, breadth of offerings, and deep relationships with pharma/biotech customers make it difficult to displace. Its investments in cutting‑edge technologies like Cryo‑EM and advanced diagnostics position it to benefit from secular trends in biologics, cell and gene therapies, and personalized medicine.

What’s more, the balance sheet and earnings generation allow for continued bolt‑on acquisitions that can augment growth and expand profit margins, while the dividend and buybacks provide an additional layer of shareholder value.

THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC. (Symbol TMO on New York; www.thermofisher.com) lets you tap a leading manufacturer of scientific instruments, laboratory equipment, diagnostic consumables, and life science reagents.

In September 2025, the company completed the acquisition of Solventum’s purification and filtration business for $4.1 billion in cash.

Solventum (symbol SOLV on New York) is a healthcare company that was spun off by 3M (symbol MMM on New York) on April 1, 2024. Solventum makes products to treat and prevent infection in wounds; it also manufactures dental filling materials, and filtration and purification products.

On July 22, 2024, activist investor Nelson Peltz, and his company, Trian Fund Management (the same firm that lost a proxy fight with Walt Disney Co. in 2023), announced that it had built up a position in the healthcare spinoff. It was thought to be one of Solventum’s largest shareholders.

Peltz wanted to see the firm accelerate sales, streamline the number of businesses it owns, improve profit margins, increase free cash flow, reduce debt, and initiate a dividend. Subsequently, instead, it accepted a takeover offer from Thermo Fisher for one of its units.

Solventum’s purification and filtration business reported about $1 billion in revenue in 2023. Its technologies are used in the production of biologics and medical devices and for industrial applications. The business employs about 2,500 people globally and will become part of Thermo Fisher’s life sciences solutions segment.
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Solventum’s Purification & Filtration business should be highly complementary to Thermo Fisher’s bioproduction unit. Today, Thermo Fisher has a leading portfolio of offerings in cell culture media and single-use technologies. Solventum’s innovative filtration portfolio broadens Thermo Fisher’s capabilities in the development and manufacturing of biologics, spanning upstream and downstream workflows.

Thermo Fisher has also bought Clario Holdings for $8.875 billion.

Clario integrates “clinical trial endpoint data” from devices, sites and patients; that enables pharma and biotech customers to collect, manage and analyze clinical evidence digitally across every step of the drug development process. The result is faster, more confident trial decisions. The company’s platform has, in fact, supported about 70% of FDA drug approvals over the past decade.

Clinical trial endpoint data refers to the specific outcomes or events that are measured to determine whether a treatment or intervention is effective and safe.

Going forward, Clario is expected to bolster the data and digital capabilities of Thermo Fisher, including the application of AI to speed up clinical research and improve insights about the drug being studied.

Thermo Fisher posts a solid quarter

In the quarter ended December 31, 2025, Thermo Fisher’s revenue rose 7.2%, to $12.22 billion from $11.40 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, per-share earnings rose 7.7%, to $6.57 from $6.10.

Overall, Thermo Fisher has relied on acquisitions for growth; it also has a high p/e and low yield. That combination leaves the company’s shares vulnerable to a sharp setback on bad corporate news or overall stock market weakness.

Still, the company’s success with health technology could produce substantial gains.

Recommendation in Power Growth Investor: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is a buy.

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Scott Clayton

Scott is an associate editor at TSI Network. He is the lead reporter and analyst for Dividend Advisor, Power Growth Investor and Canadian Wealth Advisor and a member of the Investment Planning Committee. Scott began his investment and financial career working with Pat McKeough at The Investment Reporter in the 1980s. Subsequently, he worked at the Financial Post Corporation Service for 10 years. He joined TSI Network in 1998. He is a Bachelor of Economics graduate of York University, and he also has an M.B.A. from the Schulich School of Business.

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