Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $343.33.

A number of brokerages recently commented on BIO. Citigroup raised their target price on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Zacks Research raised shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $320.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Rad Laboratories

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 22.9% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 21,932 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $6,114,000 after buying an additional 4,082 shares during the period. Westport Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in Bio-Rad Laboratories during the 2nd quarter valued at about $881,000. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new position in Bio-Rad Laboratories in the second quarter worth approximately $17,690,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories during the 2nd quarter worth $1,611,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories during the first quarter valued at about $5,098,000. 65.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Trading Down 2.9%

Shares of BIO stock opened at $368.65 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.14, a quick ratio of 2.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a 12-month low of $236.73 and a 12-month high of $396.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.68 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $369.29 and its 200 day moving average is $315.91.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The medical research company reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.87. The company had revenue of $651.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $623.99 million. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a return on equity of 3.54% and a net margin of 8.59%.Bio-Rad Laboratories’s revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.61 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 9.28 earnings per share for the current year.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc is a global life science research and clinical diagnostics company headquartered in Hercules, California. Founded in 1952, the company develops, manufactures and sells products that support scientific research, biotechnology production, medical testing and quality assurance.

Its Life Science segment provides instruments, reagents, consumables and software used in areas such as genomics, proteomics, cell biology, digital PCR, electrophoresis, chromatography and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.