Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) Stock Has Average Target Price of $68.92 According to Analysts

Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Fifteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $68.92.

A number of research analysts have commented on TECH shares. TD Cowen cut Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Citigroup cut Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $70.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Friday, June 26th. William Blair downgraded Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Zacks Research raised Bio-Techne from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $62.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 9th.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TECH. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter worth $990,924,000. HBK Investments L P acquired a new stake in Bio-Techne in the 2nd quarter valued at about $482,186,000. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. raised its position in Bio-Techne by 131.4% in the 1st quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. now owns 3,392,001 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $177,266,000 after purchasing an additional 1,926,066 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in Bio-Techne by 2,426.8% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 1,827,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $129,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the 2nd quarter valued at about $90,305,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Bio-Techne stock opened at $72.56 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $72.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 3.35 and a current ratio of 4.55. Bio-Techne has a 1 year low of $43.19 and a 1 year high of $72.69. The company has a market capitalization of $11.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.77 and a beta of 1.30.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $314.63 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bio-Techne will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 24th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. This is a boost from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 24th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

About Bio-Techne

Bio-Techne Corporation is a life sciences company that develops and supplies research, diagnostic and bioprocessing products for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, academic institutions, clinical laboratories and other healthcare organizations. Its portfolio supports research in areas such as cancer, immunology, neuroscience, cell biology and precision medicine.

The company provides proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, reagents, gene and cell therapy materials, and analytical instruments.