Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy” Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on TECH. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Bio-Techne in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 target price for the company. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Baird R W lowered shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $81.25.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of TECH stock opened at $51.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 2.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $64.44 and a 200-day moving average of $70.85. Bio-Techne has a one year low of $50.35 and a one year high of $85.57. The company has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. Equities research analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is presently 32.32%.

Insider Transactions at Bio-Techne

In related news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at $3,014,619.16. The trade was a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total value of $122,685.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,336.96. The trade was a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter worth approximately $137,301,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,654,267 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $767,428,000 after acquiring an additional 1,229,954 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Bio-Techne in the fourth quarter worth $44,479,000. Select Equity Group L.P. increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,335,359 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $168,216,000 after acquiring an additional 495,404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,047,000. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.