Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Acquires New Position in Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 8,096 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $572,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Impax Asset Management Group plc acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $11,468,000. Comerica Bank boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 56.4% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 105,481 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,203,000 after buying an additional 38,031 shares during the last quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. now owns 390,794 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $22,983,000 after buying an additional 23,785 shares in the last quarter. American Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,021,128 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $53,364,000 after buying an additional 79,979 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 316.7% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 703,477 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $41,373,000 after acquiring an additional 534,676 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

NASDAQ TECH opened at $72.22 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $11.31 billion, a PE ratio of 62.80, a P/E/G ratio of 8.62 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 4.55, a quick ratio of 3.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Bio-Techne Corp has a twelve month low of $43.19 and a twelve month high of $72.62. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.33.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.52. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 13.23%. The firm had revenue of $321.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $314.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. Bio-Techne’s revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This is a positive change from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is presently 27.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. William Blair lowered Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Leerink Partners set a $73.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 price target on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.92.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

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.