Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Acquires 2,755,065 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 92.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,746,119 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,755,065 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $404,470,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 831.4% in the fourth quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 46,205 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,565,000 after purchasing an additional 41,244 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 734,105 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $56,646,000 after acquiring an additional 118,534 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 856,514 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $66,089,000 after acquiring an additional 119,295 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 55.3% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 261,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $20,166,000 after acquiring an additional 93,107 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 135,632 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,465,000 after acquiring an additional 11,947 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.00.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 1.6 %

TECH traded down $1.31 during trading on Monday, hitting $79.29. 230,099 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,062,702. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.41 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 4.08 and a quick ratio of 2.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $76.32 and a 200 day moving average of $72.99. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12-month low of $51.79 and a 12-month high of $85.85.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $303.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $292.36 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 17.59% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.56 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.40%. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is currently 25.40%.

Bio-Techne Company 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.