Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.

TECH has been the topic of several other reports. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 target price on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $75.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $73.44.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TECH opened at $49.15 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.65, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.46. Bio-Techne has a one year low of $46.01 and a one year high of $84.61. The company’s fifty day moving average is $53.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $65.58. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $316.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $317.92 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. The business’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.48 EPS. Analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, May 7th that permits the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the biotechnology company to buy up to 6.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 39.02%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CX Institutional acquired a new position in Bio-Techne in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, GeoWealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 4th quarter valued at about $43,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

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.