Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) Price Target Lowered to $70.00 at Citigroup

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) had its price target lowered by Citigroup from $80.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

TECH has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.14.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

NASDAQ TECH opened at $63.39 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $70.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.81. Bio-Techne has a 12-month low of $58.98 and a 12-month high of $85.57. The firm has a market cap of $10.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.03, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 forecast that Bio-Techne will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is currently 32.32%.

Insider Activity

In other Bio-Techne news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,014,619.16. This trade represents a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the business’s 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 owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TECH. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the third quarter valued at $39,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Bio-Techne by 46.4% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new stake in Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new position in Bio-Techne in the fourth quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, GeoWealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Bio-Techne

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.