Bleakley Financial Group LLC Purchases New Position in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 2,803 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. now owns 737 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $319,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Evercore Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Evercore Wealth Management LLC now owns 575 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Toroso Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 4.8% in the third quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 1,266 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 4.9% in the third quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 1,406 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $399,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pearl River Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 5.6% in the first quarter. Pearl River Capital LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $574,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on TECH. Stephens dropped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $92.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. 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, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.11.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 2.3 %

TECH opened at $64.01 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 4.37 and a quick ratio of 3.03. The company has a market cap of $10.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.55 and a beta of 1.22. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $70.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.74. Bio-Techne Co. has a fifty-two week low of $51.79 and a fifty-two week high of $89.91.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $272.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $277.48 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 19.58% and a return on equity of 14.21%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 26th. Investors of record on Monday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 9th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.19%.

Insider Activity at Bio-Techne

In related news, Director Roeland Nusse sold 10,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.98, for a total transaction of $800,592.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 43,097 shares in the company, valued at $3,317,607.06. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 4.10% of the company’s stock.

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.