Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Shares Gap Down - Time to Sell?

Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped down prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $72.81, but opened at $71.33. Bio-Techne shares last traded at $68.40, with a volume of 355,698 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TECH has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price 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. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Bio-Techne from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $86.57.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 1.0 %

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 3.26. The company has a market cap of $10.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 67.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 1.27.

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 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th will be given 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 yield of 0.48%. Bio-Techne's payout ratio is 32.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Techne

In other Bio-Techne news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,594,608 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $1,339,370,000 after purchasing an additional 275,644 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,395,993 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $511,232,000 after purchasing an additional 95,133 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,001,296 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $287,488,000 after purchasing an additional 98,660 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,820,464 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $275,188,000 after buying an additional 358,756 shares during the period. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its position in Bio-Techne by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 3,581,778 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $257,995,000 after buying an additional 65,686 shares during the last quarter. 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.