Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Thursday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on BIO. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $484.00 to $480.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup cut Bio-Rad Laboratories from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price target for the company from $400.00 to $365.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $395.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bio-Rad Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $468.00.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Price Performance

Bio-Rad Laboratories stock opened at $275.94 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $7.87 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.84 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $324.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $317.24. The company has a current ratio of 5.83, a quick ratio of 4.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a 12-month low of $261.59 and a 12-month high of $473.50.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The medical research company reported $3.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.93 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $681.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $685.00 million. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a positive return on equity of 3.90% and a negative net margin of 23.86%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.31 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 10.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Rad Laboratories

In other news, EVP Michael Crowley sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.00, for a total value of $1,008,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,942 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,332,512. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 17.06% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Rad Laboratories

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,389,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $771,671,000 after buying an additional 46,119 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 3.1% in the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 955,732 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $342,582,000 after acquiring an additional 28,724 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 25.6% during the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 351,510 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $125,999,000 after purchasing an additional 71,570 shares during the last quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC raised its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 348,473 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $112,518,000 after purchasing an additional 35,890 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 343,462 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $123,114,000 after purchasing an additional 25,562 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

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.