Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) Stock Has Average Price Target of $68.92

Shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fourteen have assigned a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $68.92.

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Benchmark reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Zacks Research raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Argus downgraded Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 26th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Bio-Techne from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $62.00 to $73.00 in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Bio-Techne from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TECH opened at $72.78 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.25, a PEG ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 4.55 and a quick ratio of 3.35. The business has a 50-day moving average of $72.48 and a 200-day moving average of $63.38. Bio-Techne has a fifty-two week low of $43.19 and a fifty-two week high of $72.83.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.44. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 13.23%. The firm had revenue of $299.71 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.60 million. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Bio-Techne will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This is a decrease from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 27.83%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bio-Techne

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TECH. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the 2nd quarter worth about $990,924,000. HBK Investments L P purchased a new position in Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter valued at about $482,186,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 23.1% in the first quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 4,739,721 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $247,698,000 after buying an additional 888,798 shares during the last quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 131.4% during the 1st quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. now owns 3,392,001 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $177,266,000 after buying an additional 1,926,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 2,426.8% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,827,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $129,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754,926 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation is a life sciences company that develops and supplies research and diagnostic products for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, academic, clinical and other laboratory customers. The company supports biological research, drug discovery and development, and diagnostic testing through a portfolio of reagents, instruments and analytical technologies.

Its products include proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, flow cytometry reagents, molecular biology tools and cell culture materials.