Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Robert W. Baird Analyst Says

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) had its price objective upped by Robert W. Baird from $82.00 to $84.00 in a report issued on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

TECH has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $81.60.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of TECH traded up $1.98 on Thursday, reaching $75.73. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 281,243 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,016,625. Bio-Techne has a 12-month low of $52.99 and a 12-month high of $85.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.32, a PEG ratio of 5.49 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 4.56 and a quick ratio of 2.75. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $73.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $74.53.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.49. The firm had revenue of $306.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $306.49 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.76% and a net margin of 12.86%. Bio-Techne’s revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 34.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Techne

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 235,519 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $18,825,000 after acquiring an additional 4,084 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 261,900 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $20,934,000 after buying an additional 1,843 shares in the last quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter valued at about $211,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Bio-Techne in the third quarter worth about $59,000. Finally, Angeles Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne during the third quarter valued at approximately $316,000. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.