Select Equity Group L.P. Sells 494,710 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Select Equity Group L.P. cut its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH - Free Report) by 16.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,516,033 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after selling 494,710 shares during the quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. owned 1.60% of Bio-Techne worth $180,274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TECH. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 92.1% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,746,119 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $404,470,000 after purchasing an additional 2,755,065 shares during the last quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 3,550,990 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $273,994,000 after purchasing an additional 392,986 shares during the last quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. now owns 3,079,483 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $237,613,000 after purchasing an additional 25,903 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 14.0% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,862,526 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $201,493,000 after purchasing an additional 351,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 8.2% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,862,260 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $205,081,000 after purchasing an additional 216,044 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Benchmark restated a "buy" rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $80.60.

Bio-Techne Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of TECH stock traded up $0.66 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $78.72. 689,786 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,035,937. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12 month low of $51.79 and a 12 month high of $85.57. The company has a market cap of $12.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.75, a current ratio of 3.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company's 50-day moving average price is $75.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $74.05.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.49. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 12.88%. The firm had revenue of $306.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $306.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.56 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. Bio-Techne's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.40%.

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.