Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV Sells 610 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV cut its stake in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 39,880 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 610 shares during the quarter. Rowlandmiller & PARTNERS.ADV’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $2,338,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $778,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,967 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $862,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 43,144 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,108,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Utah Retirement Systems grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 25,756 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,855,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 19,078 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,392,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on TECH. Baird R W lowered Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Bio-Techne in a research report on Friday, May 30th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $59.00 target price on the stock. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $75.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, KeyCorp reissued a “sector weight” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bio-Techne currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $72.00.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TECH opened at $51.40 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.62. Bio-Techne Co. has a twelve month low of $46.01 and a twelve month high of $83.62. The company has a quick ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.05. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. The company had revenue of $316.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $317.92 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 39.02%.

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

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.