Thermo Fisher’s (NYSE:TMO) Q1 CY2026 Sales Top Estimates

Life sciences company Thermo Fisher (NYSE:TMO) beat Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales up 6.2% year on year to $11.01 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $5.44 per share was 3.8% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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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

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Regrettably, Thermo Fisher’s sales grew at a mediocre 4.7% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmark for the healthcare sector and is a rough starting point for our analysis.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within healthcare, a half-decade historical view may miss new innovations or demand cycles. Thermo Fisher’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its annualized revenue growth of 3.1% over the last two years was below its five-year trend. We’re wary when companies in the sector see decelerations in revenue growth, as it could signal changing consumer tastes aided by low switching costs.

We can better understand the company’s sales dynamics by analyzing its 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 1.6% 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 6.2%, and its $11.01 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 1.5%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.5% over the next 12 months, an improvement versus the last two years. This projection is above average for the sector and indicates its newer products and services will fuel better top-line performance.

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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 23.7%.

Looking at the trend in its profitability, Thermo Fisher’s adjusted operating margin decreased by 7.9 percentage points over the last five years. The company’s two-year trajectory also shows it failed to get its profitability back to the peak as its margin fell by 1.5 percentage points. This performance was poor no matter how you look at it - it shows its expenses were rising and it couldn’t pass those costs onto its customers.

In Q1, Thermo Fisher generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of 16.9%, down 5 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 4.7% 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 7.9 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 Q1, Thermo Fisher reported adjusted EPS of $5.44, up from $5.15 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 3.8%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Thermo Fisher’s full-year EPS of $23.16 to grow 9.9%.

Key Takeaways from Thermo Fisher’s Q1 Results

It was good to see Thermo Fisher narrowly top analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also glad its EPS outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, all-important organic revenue growth missed. The market seemed to be hoping for more, and the stock traded down 3.5% to $496.00 immediately following the results.

So do we think Thermo Fisher is an attractive buy at the current price? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).