Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Rating Lowered to "Hold" at Baird R W

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

TECH has been the topic of several other reports. Robert W. Baird lowered Bio-Techne from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com upgraded Bio-Techne from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on 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 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, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on 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 research 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.com, Bio-Techne presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $84.29.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

TECH traded down $0.57 on Wednesday, hitting $64.92. 1,973,157 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,342,740. Bio-Techne has a 52 week low of $61.16 and a 52 week high of $85.57. The company has a current ratio of 3.94, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 65.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.27. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $72.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $73.43.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (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%. On average, research analysts predict that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bio-Techne news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total value of $122,685.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This represents 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 Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,080 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,799 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $778,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,967 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $862,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,394 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $605,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.