Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Has $423,000 Position in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd lowered its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH - Free Report) by 65.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,291 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after selling 10,000 shares during the quarter. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd's holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $423,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the second quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its position in Bio-Techne by 922.5% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 409 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares in the last quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. DT Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the third quarter valued at $43,000. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on TECH. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Bio-Techne from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Benchmark reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $81.78.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of Bio-Techne stock traded down $0.02 on Friday, reaching $75.36. The stock had a trading volume of 464,404 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,023,966. The business's 50-day moving average price is $73.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $75.14. The stock has a market cap of $11.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.50 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a current ratio of 4.56. Bio-Techne Co. has a fifty-two week low of $61.16 and a fifty-two week high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 12.86% and a return on equity of 12.76%. The firm had revenue of $289.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $280.22 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. Bio-Techne's dividend payout ratio is currently 34.04%.

Bio-Techne 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.