Royal Bank of Canada Sells 93,248 Shares of Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Royal Bank of Canada cut its holdings in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 23.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 296,574 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 93,248 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.19% of Bio-Techne worth $17,388,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TECH. RGM Capital LLC bought a new position in Bio-Techne during the 1st quarter valued at about $59,267,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,375,279 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $666,933,000 after purchasing an additional 721,012 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP bought a new position in Bio-Techne during the 1st quarter valued at about $39,658,000. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 45.7% during the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,912,377 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $112,123,000 after purchasing an additional 599,982 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,335,359 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $168,216,000 after purchasing an additional 495,404 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TECH has been the topic of several analyst reports. 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 target on the stock. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $55.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Stephens upgraded shares of Bio-Techne to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.42.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of TECH stock opened at $54.20 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.46 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The company has a market capitalization of $8.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 117.83, a P/E/G ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 1.47. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $53.56. Bio-Techne Corp has a one year low of $46.01 and a one year high of $80.95.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 6.02% and a return on equity of 13.43%. The business had revenue of $316.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.14 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.49 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.57%.

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.