Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 1st, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share by the biotechnology company on Friday, May 24th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.42%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 10th.

Bio-Techne has a payout ratio of 15.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Bio-Techne to earn $1.81 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.7%.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TECH opened at $77.05 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 9.08 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 4.08, a quick ratio of 2.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Bio-Techne has a 1 year low of $51.79 and a 1 year high of $89.91. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $69.98 and a 200-day moving average of $68.81.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 17.59%. The company had revenue of $303.43 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.36 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne will post 1.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Bio-Techne

In other Bio-Techne news, Director Roeland Nusse sold 10,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 43,097 shares in the company, valued at $3,317,607.06. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 4.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on TECH shares. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 2nd. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price target on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, February 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.50.

About Bio-Techne

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.