Rhenman & Partners Asset Management AB Sells 17,000 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Rhenman & Partners Asset Management AB reduced its holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 85.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 17,000 shares during the period. Rhenman & Partners Asset Management AB’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $216,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $778,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,967 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $862,000 after purchasing an additional 173 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $605,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp raised its position in Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 13,223 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,057,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total value of $122,685.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TECH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Baird R W lowered Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.25.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

NASDAQ TECH opened at $51.72 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 52.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $64.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.94. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52-week low of $50.35 and a 52-week high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 32.32%.

Bio-Techne 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.