Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in October. As of October 29th, there was short interest totalling 441,500 shares, a growth of 22.7% from the October 14th total of 359,800 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 332,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.3 days. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s stock are short sold.
In other Bio-Techne news, CFO James Hippel sold 662 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction on Friday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.23, for a total transaction of $347,702.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kim Kelderman sold 822 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.04, for a total value of $434,870.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 56,052 shares of company stock valued at $28,274,809 over the last three months. 4.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TECH. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 651.9% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 391 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Berman Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 211.1% in the second quarter. Berman Capital Advisors LLC now owns 84 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Ellevest Inc. bought a new stake in Bio-Techne in the third quarter valued at approximately $37,000. KB Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in Bio-Techne in the first quarter valued at approximately $43,000. Finally, Newfound Research LLC bought a new stake in Bio-Techne in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.29% of the company’s stock.
A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Bio-Techne from $522.00 to $548.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 3rd. Argus boosted their price target on Bio-Techne from $490.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 24th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 10th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their target price on Bio-Techne from $480.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $486.00.
NASDAQ:TECH opened at $501.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $19.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 4.06, a quick ratio of 3.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $504.54 and its 200-day moving average is $471.62. Bio-Techne has a 1-year low of $296.00 and a 1-year high of $543.85.
Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 1st. The biotechnology company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.11. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 15.86% and a net margin of 17.94%. The company had revenue of $257.72 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $254.37 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bio-Techne will post 6.87 EPS for the current year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 26th. Investors of record on Friday, November 12th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 10th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is presently 29.56%.
About Bio-Techne
Bio-Techne Corp. engages in the development, manufacture and sale of biotechnology reagents and instruments for the research and clinical diagnostic markets. It operates through the following segments: Protein Sciences and Diagnostics &Genomics. The Protein Sciences segment develops and manufactures purified proteins and reagent solutions most notably cytokines and growth factors, antibodies, immunoassays, biologically active small molecule compounds, tissue culture reagents and T-Cell activation technologies.