Wealthfront Advisers LLC Invests $488,000 in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 6,772 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $488,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,395,993 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $511,232,000 after acquiring an additional 95,133 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,040,840 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $147,002,000 after acquiring an additional 354,478 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,465,690 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $105,574,000 after acquiring an additional 51,687 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the third quarter worth approximately $89,724,000. Finally, American Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.5% during the third quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,114,393 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $89,073,000 after acquiring an additional 27,508 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Bio-Techne

In other news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,336.96. The trade was a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were 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 directly owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,014,619.16. The trade was a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada lifted 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. Scotiabank lifted 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. Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.14.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ TECH opened at $62.16 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.79, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. Bio-Techne Co. has a one year low of $56.60 and a one year high of $85.57. The company’s fifty day moving average is $69.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $72.30. 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 (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly 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 return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. Analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.