Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Cut to Hold at Baird R W

Baird R W downgraded shares of Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on TECH. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.29.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

TECH opened at $64.92 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.58, a PEG ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $72.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.43. Bio-Techne has a twelve month low of $61.16 and a twelve month high of $85.57.

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

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.49%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.32%.

Insider Activity

In other Bio-Techne news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total transaction of $1,035,067.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,336.96. The trade was a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Techne

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TECH. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 46.4% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter worth $41,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. Finally, GeoWealth Management LLC bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter worth $43,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

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.