Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) Short Interest Update

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 862,700 shares, a growth of 41.4% from the February 13th total of 610,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 230,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.7 days. Currently, 4.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Trading Up 4.2 %

Bio-Rad Laboratories stock traded up $10.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $255.34. The company had a trading volume of 232,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 258,462. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a 1-year low of $244.00 and a 1-year high of $387.99. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $311.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $328.01. The stock has a market cap of $7.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.93 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 6.48, a quick ratio of 4.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The medical research company reported $2.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.86 by $0.04. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a positive return on equity of 3.90% and a negative net margin of 71.86%. As a group, analysts expect that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 10.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BIO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $481.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $360.00 to $345.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bio-Rad Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $395.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,919,808 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $630,676,000 after buying an additional 12,168 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at $342,686,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 14.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 746,119 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $245,106,000 after purchasing an additional 91,690 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 618,049 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $203,035,000 after purchasing an additional 12,500 shares during the period. Finally, Ariel Investments LLC grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 48.0% during the 4th quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 560,524 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $184,138,000 after purchasing an additional 181,829 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Company Profile

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc manufactures and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures, and markets instruments, systems, reagents, and consumables to separate, purify, characterize, and quantitate biological materials such as cells, proteins, and nucleic acids for proteomics, genomics, biopharmaceutical production, cellular biology, and food safety markets.