Guggenheim Initiates Coverage on Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG)

Research analysts at Guggenheim started coverage on shares of Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price target on the stock. Guggenheim’s target price suggests a potential upside of 28.87% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, StockNews.com raised Neogen to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th.

Neogen Stock Performance

NASDAQ NEOG opened at $11.64 on Thursday. Neogen has a fifty-two week low of $11.46 and a fifty-two week high of $20.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 2.79 and a current ratio of 4.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -105.82 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.55.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 10th. The company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.03). Neogen had a positive return on equity of 2.80% and a negative net margin of 2.58%. The firm had revenue of $217.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $215.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. Neogen’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Neogen will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO John Edward Adent purchased 14,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $13.80 per share, for a total transaction of $200,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 216,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,987,382.60. This trade represents a 7.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Neogen

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Neogen by 129.1% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 231,833 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,897,000 after buying an additional 130,641 shares during the last quarter. American Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Neogen by 36.5% during the 3rd quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,414,700 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,401,000 after purchasing an additional 913,604 shares during the period. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Neogen in the second quarter valued at approximately $5,714,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Neogen by 39.8% in the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 103,611 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,619,000 after buying an additional 29,489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in Neogen by 17.9% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 38,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $642,000 after acquiring an additional 5,804 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.73% of the company’s stock.

Neogen Company Profile

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods.