Covea Finance Acquires New Stake in Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Covea Finance bought a new position in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 38,300 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,252,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of TECH. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,710,000. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC grew its position in Bio-Techne by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 565,601 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $29,100,000 after purchasing an additional 48,838 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 474,320 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $26,386,000 after purchasing an additional 35,165 shares in the last quarter. Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,425,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Bio-Techne by 2.7% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,552,440 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $79,873,000 after buying an additional 41,180 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TECH has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $79.00 target price (up from $70.00) on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Evercore boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $62.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $72.00 price objective on Bio-Techne and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $65.00 target price on Bio-Techne and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Bio-Techne from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $72.77.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:TECH opened at $51.48 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.84 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 100.94, a PEG ratio of 3.43 and a beta of 1.48. Bio-Techne Corp has a 52-week low of $46.01 and a 52-week high of $72.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a quick ratio of 3.08 and a current ratio of 4.54.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 6.67% and a return on equity of 13.94%. The firm had revenue of $295.88 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $290.20 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.42 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 16th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 13th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.75%.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) is a global life sciences company that develops, manufactures and sells high-quality reagents, instruments and services for the research, diagnostic and bioprocessing markets. Its core product offerings include recombinant proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, nucleic acid probes and kits, single-cell analysis solutions and automated protein analysis systems. Flagship brands such as R&D Systems, Novus Biologicals, ProteinSimple and Advanced Cell Diagnostics provide researchers and clinicians with reliable tools for cell biology, immunology, proteomics and genomics applications.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bio-Techne serves customers across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region through a combination of direct sales, distributors and strategic partnerships.