Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the biotechnology company on Friday, May 24th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th.

Bio-Techne has a dividend payout ratio of 15.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Bio-Techne to earn $1.81 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.7%.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of Bio-Techne stock traded up $0.52 on Thursday, reaching $73.98. 250,303 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,087,834. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $69.57 and its 200-day moving average is $68.44. Bio-Techne has a one year low of $51.79 and a one year high of $89.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 4.37. The firm has a market cap of $11.63 billion, a PE ratio of 53.53, a P/E/G ratio of 7.87 and a beta of 1.23.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 19.58% and a return on equity of 14.21%. The company had revenue of $303.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.36 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.47 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TECH has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price target on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday. Stephens dropped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $92.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Roeland Nusse sold 10,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.98, for a total transaction of $800,592.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 43,097 shares in the company, valued at $3,317,607.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 4.45% of the company’s stock.

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.