Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) Lifted to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

BIO has been the topic of several other research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $484.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $395.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Citigroup downgraded shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $400.00 to $365.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $468.00.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Stock Up 0.1 %

Bio-Rad Laboratories stock opened at $275.94 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $324.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $317.57. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $261.59 and a fifty-two week high of $473.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.84 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 5.83 and a quick ratio of 4.34.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The medical research company reported $3.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.93 by $0.17. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a negative net margin of 23.86% and a positive return on equity of 3.90%. The business had revenue of $681.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.00 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.31 EPS. Bio-Rad Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was down 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 10.41 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Michael Crowley sold 3,000 shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.00, for a total value of $1,008,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,942 shares in the company, valued at $2,332,512. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 17.06% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Rad Laboratories

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its holdings in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 0.4% in the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 9,491 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,402,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 2.5% in the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 1,711 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $613,000 after buying an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 36.8% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 171 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 352 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $114,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gladius Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 65.8% in the fourth quarter. Gladius Capital Management LP now owns 121 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 65.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Company Profile

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc manufactures and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures, and markets instruments, systems, reagents, and consumables to separate, purify, characterize, and quantitate biological materials such as cells, proteins, and nucleic acids for proteomics, genomics, biopharmaceutical production, cellular biology, and food safety markets.