L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP Raises Stock Position in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP increased its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH – Free Report) by 66.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 26,457 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 10,582 shares during the period. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $2,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 5.8% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 16,916,926 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,380,929,000 after acquiring an additional 922,301 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 382.9% during the fourth quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 7,153,947 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $592,919,000 after buying an additional 5,672,587 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.2% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,414,193 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $523,591,000 after buying an additional 136,127 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 0.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,445,265 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,924,978,000 after buying an additional 18,627 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.8% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,741,171 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $277,019,000 after buying an additional 65,432 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TECH has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Stephens reduced their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $92.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, December 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, February 8th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $84.11.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Roeland Nusse sold 10,400 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.98, for a total value of $800,592.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 43,097 shares in the company, valued at $3,317,607.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 4.45% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Stock Up 1.4 %

TECH opened at $70.39 on Friday. Bio-Techne Co. has a fifty-two week low of $51.79 and a fifty-two week high of $89.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 3.03 and a current ratio of 4.37. The company has a fifty day moving average of $71.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.01, a PEG ratio of 7.26 and a beta of 1.22.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.36 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 19.58% and a return on equity of 14.21%. The company had revenue of $272.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $277.48 million. On average, research analysts expect that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 12th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 9th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.19%.

Bio-Techne Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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