Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Acquires Shares of 1,000 BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLFS)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in BioLife Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLFS) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,000 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $26,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. D.A. Davidson & CO. increased its position in BioLife Solutions by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 41,179 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,069,000 after acquiring an additional 519 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in BioLife Solutions by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 12,988 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $325,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of BioLife Solutions by 27.0% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 4,469 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 950 shares during the last quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC bought a new position in shares of BioLife Solutions in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of BioLife Solutions in the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.24% of the company’s stock.

BioLife Solutions Stock Up 0.6 %

BioLife Solutions stock opened at $25.48 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.49. BioLife Solutions, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $14.84 and a fifty-two week high of $29.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -24.04 and a beta of 2.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 1.78.

BioLife Solutions (NASDAQ:BLFS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, March 3rd. The medical equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by $0.32. BioLife Solutions had a negative net margin of 38.98% and a negative return on equity of 6.61%. The business had revenue of $22.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.21) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that BioLife Solutions, Inc. will post -0.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BioLife Solutions

In other news, insider Sarah Aebersold sold 1,091 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.00, for a total value of $27,275.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 58,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,470,400. The trade was a 1.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Troy Wichterman sold 987 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.02, for a total transaction of $26,668.74. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 121,779 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,290,468.58. This represents a 0.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 21,117 shares of company stock valued at $534,442. 2.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BLFS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of BioLife Solutions from $28.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of BioLife Solutions in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of BioLife Solutions from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. HC Wainwright raised their target price on shares of BioLife Solutions from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of BioLife Solutions from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.86.

BioLife Solutions Profile

BioLife Solutions, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets bioproduction tools and services for the cell and gene therapy (CGT) industry in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company’s products are used in the basic and applied research, and commercial manufacturing of biologic-based therapies.