NFJ Investment Group LLC Acquires New Position in Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

NFJ Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 74,460 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,366,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 61.8% in the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 281,747 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $20,294,000 after purchasing an additional 107,667 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,390,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 9.1% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 161,904 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $11,662,000 after purchasing an additional 13,525 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,034,608 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $74,523,000 after purchasing an additional 196,966 shares during the period. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 284.6% in the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 52,244 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,763,000 after purchasing an additional 38,661 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on TECH. TD Cowen began coverage on Bio-Techne in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price target for the company. UBS Group dropped their price target on Bio-Techne from $95.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Bio-Techne from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.42.

Bio-Techne Stock Up 2.8%

NASDAQ TECH opened at $54.41 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 3.46. The company has a market capitalization of $8.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 118.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.47. Bio-Techne Corp has a one year low of $46.01 and a one year high of $80.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $53.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.79.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $316.96 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.14 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.43% and a net margin of 6.02%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.49 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.57%.

Bio-Techne 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.