Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $84.29.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com raised Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of TECH stock opened at $65.80 on Thursday. Bio-Techne has a twelve month low of $61.16 and a twelve month high of $85.57. The stock has a market cap of $10.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.46, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $73.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $73.57. The company has a current ratio of 3.94, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bio-Techne news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,014,619.16. The trade was a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,594,608 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,339,370,000 after purchasing an additional 275,644 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,654,267 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $767,428,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229,954 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,395,993 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $511,232,000 after buying an additional 95,133 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,702,942 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $338,756,000 after buying an additional 317,349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,001,296 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $287,488,000 after buying an additional 98,660 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

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.