Squarepoint Ops LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 90.3% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 32,334 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 15,345 shares during the quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $2,317,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. First City Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Bio-Techne by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. First City Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,185 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its position 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 worth $279,000 after buying an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC grew its stake in Bio-Techne by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 2,652 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $205,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 10,164 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $715,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its position in Bio-Techne by 6.3% during the second quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,943 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $283,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TECH. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Bio-Techne from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $80.60.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Bio-Techne stock opened at $74.00 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $75.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $74.18. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52 week low of $51.79 and a 52 week high of $85.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.73, a PEG ratio of 5.69 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 3.87, a quick ratio of 2.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.49 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 12.88%. The company had revenue of $306.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.49 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.