Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Shares Sold by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. lowered its stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,712 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 871 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $1,086,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of TECH. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,395,993 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $511,232,000 after acquiring an additional 95,133 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Bio-Techne by 8.2% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,862,260 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $205,081,000 after purchasing an additional 216,044 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,589,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $185,559,000 after purchasing an additional 88,257 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter valued at $89,724,000. Finally, American Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,114,393 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $89,073,000 after buying an additional 27,508 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on TECH. Scotiabank raised their target price on Bio-Techne from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.00.

Bio-Techne Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:TECH opened at $72.98 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $74.31. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52 week low of $61.16 and a 52 week high of $85.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a current ratio of 4.56. The company has a market cap of $11.60 billion, a PE ratio of 77.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.27.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $289.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $280.22 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.76% and a net margin of 12.86%. Bio-Techne’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.04%.

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.