First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Sells 4,691 Shares of Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lessened its holdings in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 35.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,384 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 4,691 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $431,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the first quarter worth $34,000. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in Bio-Techne during the first quarter worth $41,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 1,239.1% during the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 924 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Bio-Techne during the second quarter worth $51,000. Finally, Horizon Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Bio-Techne during the first quarter worth $69,000. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Stephens upgraded shares of Bio-Techne to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.58.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 0.2%

TECH stock opened at $65.90 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 3.46. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.02. Bio-Techne Corp has a 52 week low of $46.01 and a 52 week high of $80.80. The company has a market capitalization of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 143.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.48.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 6.02% and a return on equity of 13.43%. The business had revenue of $316.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.14 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.49 earnings per share. Bio-Techne’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 18th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.57%.

Bio-Techne 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.