GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases 102,345 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 3,534.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 105,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 102,345 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC owned 0.07% of Bio-Techne worth $6,170,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of TECH. Retirement Systems of Alabama raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 34,402 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,478,000 after buying an additional 336 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 46.6% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 16,650 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,215,000 after buying an additional 5,295 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,812 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $348,000 after buying an additional 603 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 16,821 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,212,000 after buying an additional 474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 4,951 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on TECH shares. Baird R W downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Friday, May 30th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $59.00 price objective for the company. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.00.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of Bio-Techne stock opened at $49.88 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.94. The company has a fifty day moving average of $49.68 and a 200-day moving average of $62.70. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52-week low of $46.01 and a 52-week high of $83.62.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.56 earnings per share 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 net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, May 7th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the biotechnology company to repurchase up to 6.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 39.02%.

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.