Ethic Inc. Has $525,000 Holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO)

Ethic Inc. grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) by 48.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,598 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 522 shares during the quarter. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories were worth $525,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BIO. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 95.6% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 44,341 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,836,000 after buying an additional 21,669 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 28.2% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $753,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories during the 4th quarter worth about $569,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 47.5% during the 4th quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 1,158 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $380,000 after purchasing an additional 373 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories during the 4th quarter worth about $28,740,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Trading Up 2.5%

Shares of BIO opened at $242.94 on Friday. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. has a 12-month low of $215.38 and a 12-month high of $387.99. The company has a quick ratio of 4.85, a current ratio of 6.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.74 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $243.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $299.31.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The medical research company reported $2.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.81. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a positive return on equity of 3.90% and a negative net margin of 71.86%. The firm had revenue of $585.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $573.01 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. will post 10.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on BIO. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $409.00 to $392.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $320.00 to $270.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $400.00 to $350.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. UBS Group cut their price objective on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $355.00 to $310.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $327.40.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Company Profile

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc manufactures and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures, and markets instruments, systems, reagents, and consumables to separate, purify, characterize, and quantitate biological materials such as cells, proteins, and nucleic acids for proteomics, genomics, biopharmaceutical production, cellular biology, and food safety markets.