Parnassus Investments LLC Sells 63,188 Shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. $BIO

Parnassus Investments LLC lessened its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) by 20.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 252,140 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 63,188 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories were worth $76,396,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 115.2% during the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 142 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories during the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 76.9% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 184 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Financial Management Professionals Inc. purchased a new stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories during the fourth quarter valued at $61,000. Institutional investors own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BIO shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories in a research note on Friday, May 15th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $375.00 to $300.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $320.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $303.33.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of BIO opened at $292.74 on Friday. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. has a twelve month low of $222.80 and a twelve month high of $343.12. The company has a market cap of $7.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.23 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 2.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $283.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $291.19.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The medical research company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.97 by ($0.08). Bio-Rad Laboratories had a net margin of 6.52% and a return on equity of 3.56%. The firm had revenue of $592.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $589.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.54 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. will post 9.42 EPS for the current year.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc is a global provider of life science research and clinical diagnostic products. The company operates through two primary business segments: Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. Within the Life Science segment, Bio-Rad offers instruments, reagents and consumables for protein analysis, cell biology, gene expression and other molecular biology applications. The Clinical Diagnostics segment supplies quality control products, blood-typing reagents and instruments, and molecular diagnostic assays used in blood screening, infectious disease testing and routine clinical laboratories.

Founded in 1952 by David and Alice Schwartz and headquartered in Hercules, California, Bio-Rad has grown its footprint across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other regions.