Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Stock Rating Lowered by Baird R W

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) was downgraded by equities researchers at Baird R W from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday. StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.29.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Bio-Techne stock opened at $65.49 on Wednesday. Bio-Techne has a 52-week low of $61.16 and a 52-week high of $85.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.15, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.52. The company has a quick ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter valued at about $137,301,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew 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 valued at $767,428,000 after buying an additional 1,229,954 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter valued at about $89,724,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter valued at about $44,479,000. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 26.9% in 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 buying an additional 495,404 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

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.