StockNews.com Upgrades Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) to “Buy”

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their price target 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. Baird R W lowered shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird cut Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.14.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of TECH stock opened at $62.58 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.89 billion, a PE ratio of 63.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. Bio-Techne has a 52-week low of $56.60 and a 52-week high of $85.57. The business’s fifty day moving average is $69.22 and its 200 day moving average is $72.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.94.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bio-Techne news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,014,619.16. The trade was a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Techne

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in TECH. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne in the fourth quarter worth $137,301,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Bio-Techne by 13.1% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth about $89,724,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the 4th quarter valued at about $44,479,000. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 26.9% during the fourth quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,335,359 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $168,216,000 after buying an additional 495,404 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.