Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 716 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Kentucky Retirement Systems lessened its stake in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 5.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,938 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 716 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $840,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 23.8% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 921 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 177 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 57.9% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 521 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 13,220 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $931,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,957 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Michigan Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 43,344 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,344,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on TECH shares. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Bio-Techne from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.00.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of TECH stock traded down $0.44 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $80.16. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 305,920 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,063,376. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.99. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52 week low of $51.79 and a 52 week high of $85.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.88 and a current ratio of 4.08. The company has a market cap of $12.63 billion, a PE ratio of 63.97, a P/E/G ratio of 8.41 and a beta of 1.29.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 17.59%. The firm had revenue of $303.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.36 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 24th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 25.40%.

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.