StockNews.com Downgrades Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday morning.

BIO has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $420.00 to $385.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $400.00 to $365.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a hold rating and issued a $315.00 target price (down from $440.00) on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Rad Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $436.67.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of BIO stock opened at $302.11 on Friday. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $261.59 and a fifty-two week high of $431.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 4.89 and a current ratio of 6.57. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $284.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $307.69. The company has a market cap of $8.62 billion, a P/E ratio of -29.16 and a beta of 0.93.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The medical research company reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $610.82 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $619.09 million. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a negative net margin of 12.37% and a positive return on equity of 3.59%. Bio-Rad Laboratories’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.34 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 10.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Bio-Rad Laboratories

In related news, EVP Michael Crowley sold 369 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.91, for a total value of $104,024.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,573 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,994.43. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 17.06% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Rad Laboratories

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BIO. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,421,334 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $837,467,000 after buying an additional 31,445 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 30.8% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 514,906 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $178,091,000 after acquiring an additional 121,272 shares during the period. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 348,473 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $112,518,000 after acquiring an additional 35,890 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 237,790 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $76,780,000 after acquiring an additional 16,999 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories in the 4th quarter worth approximately $73,142,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc manufactures and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures, and markets instruments, systems, reagents, and consumables to separate, purify, characterize, and quantitate biological materials such as cells, proteins, and nucleic acids for proteomics, genomics, biopharmaceutical production, cellular biology, and food safety markets.