Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Lowered to Neutral Rating by Robert W. Baird

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) was downgraded by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Wednesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They presently have a $68.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $88.00. Robert W. Baird’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 4.15% from the company’s current price.

TECH has been the subject of a number of other reports. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bio-Techne has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.29.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TECH opened at $65.29 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $73.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 2.77. The firm has a market cap of $10.32 billion, a PE ratio of 65.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.27. Bio-Techne has a 1-year low of $61.16 and a 1-year high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. On average, equities analysts expect that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Bio-Techne

In other Bio-Techne news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TECH. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the fourth quarter worth about $283,000. GTS Securities LLC grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. GTS Securities LLC now owns 4,107 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $296,000 after acquiring an additional 859 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 924,721 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $66,608,000 after acquiring an additional 170,377 shares during the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the fourth quarter worth about $687,000. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 113.5% during the fourth quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 9,060 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $653,000 after acquiring an additional 4,816 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.