Life sciences company Thermo Fisher (NYSE: TMO) reported Q3 2026 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations, with sales up 9.1% year on year to $12.14 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $6.68 per share was 4.3% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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“We are very pleased to deliver another excellent quarter, with outstanding financial performance on both the top and bottom line,” said Marc N. Casper, chairman and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. “We’re advancing our proven growth strategy, which is resonating strongly with our customers, and our PPI Business System is enabling outstanding execution across the company.”

Company Overview

With over 14,000 sales personnel and a portfolio spanning more than 2,500 technology manufacturers, Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) provides scientific equipment, reagents, consumables, software, and laboratory services to pharmaceutical, biotech, academic, and healthcare customers worldwide.

Revenue Growth

Reviewing a company’s long-term sales performance reveals insights into its quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Unfortunately, Thermo Fisher’s 3.9% annualized revenue growth over the last five years was tepid. This was below our standard for the healthcare sector and is a tough starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within healthcare, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. Thermo Fisher’s annualized revenue growth of 5.7% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, which is encouraging.

Thermo Fisher also reports organic revenue, which strips out one-time events like acquisitions and currency fluctuations that don’t accurately reflect its fundamentals. Over the last two years, Thermo Fisher’s organic revenue averaged 3.1% year-on-year growth. Because this number is lower than its two-year revenue growth, we can see that some mixture of acquisitions and foreign exchange rates boosted its headline results.

This quarter, Thermo Fisher reported year-on-year revenue growth of 9.1%, and its $12.14 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 1.4%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 4.8% over the next 12 months, similar to its two-year rate. This projection is underwhelming and implies its newer products and services will not lead to better top-line performance yet.

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Adjusted Operating Margin

Thermo Fisher has been an efficient company over the last five years. It was one of the more profitable businesses in the healthcare sector, boasting an average adjusted operating margin of 23.1%.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Thermo Fisher’s adjusted operating margin decreased by 4.5 percentage points over the last five years. This raises questions about the company’s expense base because its revenue growth should have given it leverage on its fixed costs, resulting in better economies of scale and profitability.

In Q3, Thermo Fisher generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of 18.6%, down 4.6 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses grew faster than its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

Thermo Fisher’s flat EPS over the last five years was below its 3.9% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded due to non-fundamental factors such as interest expenses and taxes.

We can take a deeper look into Thermo Fisher’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, Thermo Fisher’s adjusted operating margin declined by 4.5 percentage points over the last five years. This was the most relevant factor (aside from the revenue impact) behind its lower earnings; interest expenses and taxes can also affect EPS but don’t tell us as much about a company’s fundamentals.

In Q3, Thermo Fisher reported adjusted EPS of $6.68, up from $5.79 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 4.3%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Thermo Fisher’s full-year EPS to grow 8.3% from $24.72 to $26.78.

Key Takeaways from Thermo Fisher’s Q3 Results

We enjoyed seeing Thermo Fisher beat analysts’ organic revenue expectations this quarter. We were also happy its revenue narrowly outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, we think this was a solid quarter with some key areas of upside. The stock remained flat at $685.72 immediately after reporting.

So do we think Thermo Fisher is an attractive buy at the current price? If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).