Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) hit a new 52-week high on Monday. The stock traded as high as $72.93 and last traded at $72.78, with a volume of 415 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $72.78.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on TECH. Benchmark reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Argus downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Bio-Techne from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. One 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 assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $68.92.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 0.0%

The company has a market cap of $11.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 3.35, a current ratio of 4.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $72.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.38.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.44. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.23% and a net margin of 14.97%. The firm had revenue of $299.71 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.60 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This is a decrease from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Techne

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TECH. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter valued at about $990,924,000. HBK Investments L P purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne during the second quarter worth about $482,186,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 23.1% during the first quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 4,739,721 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $247,698,000 after purchasing an additional 888,798 shares during the period. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 131.4% during the first quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. now owns 3,392,001 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $177,266,000 after purchasing an additional 1,926,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 2,426.8% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,827,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $129,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754,926 shares in the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Bio-Techne