Bio-Techne Corp $TECH Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 99.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 13,483 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 2,053,841 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $977,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,889,000. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 30,935 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,242,000 after buying an additional 338 shares during the last quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $752,000. Choreo LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the third quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Finally, North Dakota State Investment Board grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 4.3% in the third quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board now owns 4,789 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $347,000 after acquiring an additional 196 shares in 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 $72.78 on Monday. Bio-Techne Corp has a 52-week low of $43.19 and a 52-week high of $72.83. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $72.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 3.35 and a current ratio of 4.55. The company has a market capitalization of $11.43 billion, a PE ratio of 63.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 1.29.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44. The firm had revenue of $299.71 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $292.60 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 13.23%. On average, research analysts predict that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This is a decrease from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on TECH shares. Zacks Research raised Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Bio-Techne from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Argus cut Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Bio-Techne from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, fourteen have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.92.

About Bio-Techne