Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) to Buyback $500.00 million in Outstanding Stock

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the biotechnology company to reacquire up to 6.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:TECH opened at $48.75 on Thursday. Bio-Techne has a 12-month low of $46.01 and a 12-month high of $85.57. The company has a market cap of $7.71 billion, a PE ratio of 49.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.46. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $55.11 and a 200 day moving average of $66.52. The company has a current ratio of 3.94, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on TECH. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $81.14.

Insider Activity at Bio-Techne

In other Bio-Techne news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,336.96. The trade was a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 3.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Bio-Techne

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.