Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) have received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $81.25.

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Techne

In other Bio-Techne news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the company’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 transaction of $1,035,067.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TECH. Townsquare Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 6,883 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $550,000 after purchasing an additional 820 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 11.4% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,830 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $546,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 86,600 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,922,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares during the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 47.6% during the 3rd quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 5,274 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $422,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 66,484 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,314,000 after purchasing an additional 396 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Stock Down 8.9 %

NASDAQ TECH opened at $49.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 2.77. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $61.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.75. Bio-Techne has a 12 month low of $46.44 and a 12 month high of $85.57. The company has a market capitalization of $7.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.76, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.45.

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

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.32%.

About Bio-Techne

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.