Bio-Techne Corp $TECH Stock: Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Trims Holdings

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. cut its position in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 99.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 13,483 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 2,053,841 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $977,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the second quarter worth approximately $990,924,000. HBK Investments L P bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the second quarter valued at approximately $482,186,000. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. increased its holdings 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 valued at $177,266,000 after acquiring an additional 1,926,066 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised 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 during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the second quarter worth approximately $90,305,000. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of TECH opened at $72.78 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 3.35 and a current ratio of 4.55. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $72.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.29, a P/E/G ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 1.29. Bio-Techne Corp has a 52 week low of $43.19 and a 52 week high of $72.83.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.44 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.60 million. Equities analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Cuts Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

TECH has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research upgraded Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. Benchmark reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Argus lowered shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note 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 downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $62.00 to $73.00 in a report on Thursday, August 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.92.

About Bio-Techne