Brokerages Set Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) PT at $82.00

Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $82.00.

TECH has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com raised Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Bio-Techne from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

TECH stock opened at $72.98 on Wednesday. Bio-Techne has a twelve month low of $61.16 and a twelve month high of $85.57. The company has a quick ratio of 3.26, a current ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company has a market cap of $11.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.27. The business’s fifty day moving average is $73.39 and its 200-day moving average is $74.34.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $289.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $280.22 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.76% and a net margin of 12.86%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.44%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.04%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bio-Techne

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TECH. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,395,993 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $511,232,000 after acquiring an additional 95,133 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,862,260 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $205,081,000 after buying an additional 216,044 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 88,257 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Bio-Techne during the third quarter worth $89,724,000. Finally, American Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Bio-Techne by 2.5% during the third quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,114,393 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $89,073,000 after acquiring an additional 27,508 shares in the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.