Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Guggenheim

Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG - Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $15.00 price objective on the stock.

Separately, StockNews.com raised Neogen to a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th.

Neogen Stock Up 3.3 %

NASDAQ NEOG traded up $0.38 on Thursday, reaching $12.02. 2,730,248 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,916,681. Neogen has a 12 month low of $11.46 and a 12 month high of $20.89. The company has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -109.27 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $14.08 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 2.79 and a current ratio of 4.41.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 10th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.03). Neogen had a positive return on equity of 2.80% and a negative net margin of 2.58%. The business had revenue of $217.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.11 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Neogen will post 0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO John Edward Adent bought 14,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $13.80 per share, for a total transaction of $200,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 216,477 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,987,382.60. This represents a 7.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Neogen

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Neogen by 64.7% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 12,013,072 shares of the company's stock valued at $187,764,000 after purchasing an additional 4,717,696 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its holdings in Neogen by 23.1% in the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 15,530,439 shares of the company's stock worth $242,741,000 after buying an additional 2,914,893 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Neogen by 148.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,109,180 shares of the company's stock valued at $64,229,000 after acquiring an additional 2,454,566 shares during the last quarter. Shapiro Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Neogen in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,087,000. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC increased its position in shares of Neogen by 86.5% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,986,744 shares of the company's stock worth $67,017,000 after purchasing an additional 1,849,427 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.73% of the company's stock.

Neogen Company Profile

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods.