Royce & Associates LP Purchases 15,353 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Royce & Associates LP grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 860,751 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,353 shares during the quarter. Bio-Techne comprises 0.6% of Royce & Associates LP’s holdings, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Royce & Associates LP owned 0.54% of Bio-Techne worth $62,000,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 60.4% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 672 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 35.0% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 763 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Baird R W cut Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird cut Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.14.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 3.8 %

NASDAQ TECH opened at $62.16 on Friday. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12 month low of $56.60 and a 12 month high of $85.57. The stock has a market cap of $9.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $69.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $72.29. The company has a current ratio of 3.94, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Techne

In related news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at $3,014,619.16. This trade represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells life science reagents, instruments, and services for the research and clinical diagnostic markets in the United States, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, Greater China, rest of Asia-Pacific, and internationally.