Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Given New $80.00 Price Target at Royal Bank of Canada

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) had its target price boosted by Royal Bank of Canada from $79.00 to $80.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a sector perform rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

TECH has been the topic of several other reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six 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 a consensus price target of $86.57.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

TECH opened at $75.01 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a current ratio of 4.56. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.80, a PEG ratio of 5.42 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a fifty day moving average of $74.61 and a 200 day moving average of $74.37. Bio-Techne has a fifty-two week low of $61.16 and a fifty-two week high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 12.86% and a return on equity of 12.76%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

Insider Activity at Bio-Techne

In related news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total transaction of $1,035,067.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at $3,014,619.16. The trade was a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 4.1% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,080 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $778,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,967 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $862,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $605,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares in the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by 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.