Thermo Fisher Scientific reports tomorrow. Options traders are already positioned.
The put-call ratio hit 1.10 on May 18 — down sharply from a 20-day mean of 1.27. That's a z-score of -3.16, a three-standard-deviation shift toward calls. Relative to the 52-week range of 0.51 to 2.27, the current reading sits close to the bullish extreme.
Analysts haven't given up on the name — but they've dialled back hard. Five firms cut price targets since mid-April. Wells Fargo trimmed to $615 from $675. Stifel moved to $600 from $700. Barclays dropped to $625. The consensus still carries an Overweight/Buy skew, yet the mean target of $612.52 sits 38% above today's close of $442.
That gap explains the call buying. Traders are positioning for a rebound, not ignoring the headwinds.
The stock is down 16% in the past month. Year-to-date losses stand at roughly 24%. The last two earnings prints moved the stock sharply lower — down 8.6% in one day after April 2026 results, and down 11% after the prior quarter.
Short interest is 1.28% of float, up ~9% week-on-week and 29% over the past month. That rise is notable but the absolute level remains low. Borrow is abundantly loose — availability sits at the maximum reading in the data, with cost to borrow at just 0.20% after a 54% weekly decline.
Short sellers aren't pressing hard. The bears in this trade are mostly expressing views through puts — and right now, call buyers are overwhelming them.
TMO isn't alone. Across the life sciences tools group, peers are broadly weaker. Charles River Labs fell 15% on the week. Repligen dropped 16.7%. Danaher lost 5.4%. The sector faces the same biotech funding headwinds — but TMO is the large-cap bellwether reporting first.
What to watch: Whether tomorrow's print can close even a fraction of the $170 gap between the share price and analyst targets — or extends the two-quarter streak of post-earnings declines.
See the live data behind this article on ORTEX.
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