PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators Acquires Shares of 379,367 Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 379,367 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,311,000. Bio-Techne makes up about 0.8% of PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators’ portfolio, making the stock its 19th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in TECH. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,063,939 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $62,379,000 after buying an additional 113,634 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 40.0% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 13,356 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $783,000 after buying an additional 3,814 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 506.3% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 673 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 562 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1,085.7% during the 2nd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 105,418 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,424,000 after buying an additional 96,527 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 82.6% during the 2nd quarter. Natixis now owns 24,991 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,286,000 after buying an additional 11,306 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bio-Techne Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:TECH opened at $51.99 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.08 and a beta of 1.37. Bio-Techne Corp has a 1-year low of $43.19 and a 1-year high of $72.16. The company’s fifty day moving average is $52.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 3.18 and a current ratio of 4.49.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $311.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $316.11 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.57% and a net margin of 9.05%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is 46.38%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on TECH. Zacks Research upgraded Bio-Techne from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 target price on Bio-Techne in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Bio-Techne from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Evercore set a $50.00 target price on Bio-Techne in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $62.00 price objective on Bio-Techne and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.17.

About Bio-Techne

Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) is a global life sciences company that develops, manufactures and sells high-quality reagents, instruments and services for the research, diagnostic and bioprocessing markets. Its core product offerings include recombinant proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, nucleic acid probes and kits, single-cell analysis solutions and automated protein analysis systems. Flagship brands such as R&D Systems, Novus Biologicals, ProteinSimple and Advanced Cell Diagnostics provide researchers and clinicians with reliable tools for cell biology, immunology, proteomics and genomics applications.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bio-Techne serves customers across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region through a combination of direct sales, distributors and strategic partnerships.