17,477,007 Shares in Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG) Acquired by Norges Bank

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 17,477,007 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,171,000. Norges Bank owned approximately 8.06% of Neogen as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Harbour Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Neogen in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in Neogen by 196.7% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,368 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 2,233 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in Neogen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $66,000. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Neogen by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 8,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,000 after purchasing an additional 2,379 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hardy Reed LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Neogen in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $133,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.73% of the company’s stock.

Neogen Stock Performance

Neogen stock opened at $8.64 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.95 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.77 and a quick ratio of 2.46. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.72. Neogen Co. has a 1-year low of $8.31 and a 1-year high of $18.58.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.12. Neogen had a positive return on equity of 2.89% and a negative net margin of 52.12%. The company had revenue of $231.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $227.16 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.11 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Neogen Co. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on NEOG shares. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price objective (down previously from $16.50) on shares of Neogen in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Guggenheim assumed coverage on Neogen in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO David H. Naemura purchased 14,800 shares of Neogen stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $11.11 per share, with a total value of $164,428.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 61,434 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $682,531.74. The trade was a 31.74 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO John Edward Adent acquired 23,035 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $11.03 per share, with a total value of $254,076.05. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 269,164 shares in the company, valued at $2,968,878.92. This trade represents a 9.36 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.13% of the company’s stock.

Neogen Company Profile

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods.