Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH Invests $312,000 in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH bought a new stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 4,325 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $312,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in TECH. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the fourth quarter valued at $137,301,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,654,267 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $767,428,000 after buying an additional 1,229,954 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Bio-Techne during the fourth quarter worth $44,479,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in Bio-Techne during the fourth quarter worth $30,047,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,820,464 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $275,188,000 after purchasing an additional 358,756 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $63.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Benchmark reduced their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $95.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $75.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.44.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of Bio-Techne stock opened at $49.15 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $53.46 and a 200-day moving average of $65.45. The stock has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a PE ratio of 49.65, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.46. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52-week low of $46.01 and a 52-week high of $84.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.94.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $316.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $317.92 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. Bio-Techne’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is presently 39.02%.

Bio-Techne declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, May 7th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the biotechnology company to buy up to 6.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Bio-Techne

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.