Vontobel Holding Ltd. Has $377,000 Position in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 46.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,229 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 4,462 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $377,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.6% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 16,650 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,215,000 after purchasing an additional 5,295 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 58.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 43,298 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,119,000 after buying an additional 16,038 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,188,000. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Broadcrest Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Broadcrest Asset Management LLC now owns 200,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $15,986,000 after buying an additional 100,000 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of TECH stock opened at $65.49 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a PE ratio of 66.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $73.52. The company has a current ratio of 3.94, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12 month low of $61.16 and a 12 month high of $85.57.

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

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on TECH shares. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the company’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 sale, the director now owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.90% 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.