Granite Investment Partners LLC Cuts Stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Granite Investment Partners LLC cut its stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 92,467 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 563 shares during the period. Granite Investment Partners LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Bio-Techne worth $6,625,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of TECH. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Bio-Techne by 92.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,746,119 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $404,470,000 after buying an additional 2,755,065 shares in the last quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 3,550,990 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $273,994,000 after acquiring an additional 392,986 shares in the last quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Mairs & Power Inc. now owns 3,079,483 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $237,613,000 after purchasing an additional 25,903 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Bio-Techne by 14.0% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,862,526 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $201,493,000 after purchasing an additional 351,645 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in Bio-Techne by 3.5% in the second 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 during the period. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of TECH stock opened at $78.30 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.14, a PEG ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 1.27. Bio-Techne Co. has a one year low of $51.79 and a one year high of $85.57. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $75.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $73.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a current ratio of 3.87.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.49. The company had revenue of $306.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $306.49 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.88% and a net margin of 14.50%. The business’s revenue was up 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.40%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on TECH. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Bio-Techne from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $80.60.

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.