Baird R W Downgrades Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) to Hold

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) was downgraded by analysts at Baird R W from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

TECH has been the subject of several other reports. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a report on Wednesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.29.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

TECH opened at $65.80 on Wednesday. Bio-Techne has a 52-week low of $61.16 and a 52-week high of $85.57. The company has a 50 day moving average of $73.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $73.57. The company has a market cap of $10.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. On average, analysts expect that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Bio-Techne

In other Bio-Techne news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,014,619.16. This trade represents a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total value of $122,685.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the third quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, GeoWealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Bio-Techne during the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells life science reagents, instruments, and services for the research and clinical diagnostic markets in the United States, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Greater China, rest of Asia-Pacific, and internationally.