Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Acquires Shares of 8,096 Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,096 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $572,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TECH. Impax Asset Management Group plc purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 4th quarter valued at about $11,468,000. Comerica Bank boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 56.4% in the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 105,481 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,203,000 after buying an additional 38,031 shares during the last quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. now owns 390,794 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $22,983,000 after buying an additional 23,785 shares during the last quarter. American Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 8.5% during the first quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,021,128 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $53,364,000 after acquiring an additional 79,979 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 316.7% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 703,477 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $41,373,000 after acquiring an additional 534,676 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Stock Down 0.2%

TECH opened at $72.22 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $11.31 billion, a PE ratio of 62.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.62 and a beta of 1.28. Bio-Techne Corp has a twelve month low of $43.19 and a twelve month high of $72.62. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $68.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $59.33. The company has a quick ratio of 3.35, a current ratio of 4.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.52. The company had revenue of $321.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $314.63 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.23% and a net margin of 14.97%.Bio-Techne’s revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.53 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Investors of record on Monday, August 24th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. This is an increase from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TECH. Leerink Partners set a $73.00 price target on Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Benchmark lowered shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. William Blair cut shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Stephens set a $73.00 price target on shares of Bio-Techne and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.92.

Bio-Techne 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.