American Century Companies Inc. Buys 924,571 Shares of Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG) by 55.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,606,043 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 924,571 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned 1.20% of Neogen worth $31,637,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in Neogen by 86.5% in the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,986,744 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,017,000 after purchasing an additional 1,849,427 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Neogen by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 14,346,759 shares of the company’s stock valued at $174,170,000 after buying an additional 1,074,825 shares during the period. American Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Neogen by 36.5% in the 3rd quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,414,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,401,000 after buying an additional 913,604 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Neogen by 32.1% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 1,303,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,824,000 after buying an additional 316,457 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Neogen by 3.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,932,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,340,000 after acquiring an additional 236,762 shares in the last quarter. 96.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Neogen

In related news, CEO John Edward Adent purchased 23,035 shares of Neogen stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $11.03 per share, with a total value of $254,076.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 269,164 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,968,878.92. This trade represents a 9.36 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO David H. Naemura purchased 14,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.11 per share, with a total value of $164,428.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 61,434 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $682,531.74. This represents a 31.74 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.13% of the company’s stock.

Neogen Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NEOG opened at $8.64 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $12.76. Neogen Co. has a 1-year low of $8.31 and a 1-year high of $18.58. The firm has a market cap of $1.87 billion, a PE ratio of -3.95 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 3.77, a quick ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $231.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $227.16 million. Neogen had a positive return on equity of 2.89% and a negative net margin of 52.12%. Neogen’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.11 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Neogen Co. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on NEOG. Guggenheim started coverage on Neogen in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price target for the company. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 target price (down from $16.50) on shares of Neogen in a report on Tuesday, January 21st.

Neogen Profile

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods.