Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Bio-Techne from $75.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $63.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “sector weight” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $72.00.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TECH opened at $48.40 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 2.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $50.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.67. Bio-Techne has a 1-year low of $46.01 and a 1-year high of $83.62. The company has a market cap of $7.59 billion, a PE ratio of 48.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.46.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $316.18 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $317.92 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.48 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, May 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $500.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the biotechnology company to reacquire up to 6.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Techne

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TECH. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its position in Bio-Techne by 129.8% during the 1st quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 5,366,003 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $314,609,000 after acquiring an additional 3,030,644 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the fourth quarter worth $137,301,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 10,654,267 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $767,428,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229,954 shares during the last quarter. RGM Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the first quarter worth $59,267,000. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the first quarter worth $39,658,000. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

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.