Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Stock Rating Cut to Strong Sell at Argus

Argus cut shares of Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) from a strong-buy rating to a strong sell rating in a research note released on Monday,Zacks reports.

Several other research firms also recently commented on TECH. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $62.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Evercore cut shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, TD Cowen cut shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $65.00 to $73.00 in a report on Monday, June 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.92.

Bio-Techne Stock Down 0.1%

TECH opened at $72.60 on Monday. Bio-Techne has a 52 week low of $43.19 and a 52 week high of $72.75. The business’s 50 day moving average is $72.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $63.17.

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, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.52. The firm had revenue of $321.19 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $314.63 million. Bio-Techne’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.70 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 24th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 24th. This is an increase from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bio-Techne

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter worth $990,924,000. HBK Investments L P purchased a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the second quarter valued at about $482,186,000. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 131.4% in the first quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. now owns 3,392,001 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $177,266,000 after acquiring an additional 1,926,066 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 2,426.8% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,827,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $129,095,000 after acquiring an additional 1,754,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the second quarter worth about $90,305,000. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation is a life sciences company that develops and supplies research and diagnostic products for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, academic, clinical and other laboratory customers. The company supports biological research, drug discovery and development, and diagnostic testing through a portfolio of reagents, instruments and analytical technologies.

Its products include proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, flow cytometry reagents, molecular biology tools and cell culture materials.