Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) Trading 4.5% Higher - Time to Buy?

Shares of Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG - Get Free Report) were up 4.5% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $12.16 and last traded at $12.16. Approximately 395,725 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 1,906,530 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.64.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised Neogen to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Neogen in a research note on Thursday. They set a "buy" rating and a $15.00 target price on the stock.

Neogen Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.79, a current ratio of 4.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company's fifty day moving average price is $14.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.52. The company has a market capitalization of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of -109.27 and a beta of 1.21.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Neogen news, CEO John Edward Adent bought 14,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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. The trade was a 7.18 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.13% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Neogen by 142.6% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the company's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 1,165 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Neogen in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its position in Neogen by 264.1% during the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 3,397 shares of the company's stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 2,464 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in Neogen during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $66,000. Finally, Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Neogen during the second quarter valued at $90,000. Institutional investors own 96.73% of the company's stock.

About Neogen

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.