Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 897 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Kentucky Retirement Systems trimmed its stake in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 7.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,978 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 897 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $877,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 92.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,746,119 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $404,470,000 after acquiring an additional 2,755,065 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,862,260 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $205,081,000 after acquiring an additional 216,044 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,589,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $185,559,000 after acquiring an additional 88,257 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,714,994 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $122,879,000 after acquiring an additional 290,510 shares during the period. Finally, Geneva Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 1,104,310 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $88,267,000 after acquiring an additional 17,114 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on TECH shares. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Bio-Techne from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.78.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of TECH opened at $66.37 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a PE ratio of 70.61, a PEG ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $75.35. The company has a quick ratio of 3.26, a current ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12-month low of $61.11 and a 12-month high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $289.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $280.22 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.76% and a net margin of 12.86%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.48%. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 34.04%.

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.