Hills Bank & Trust Co Grows Stock Position in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Hills Bank & Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 1.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,804 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $1,451,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 4.5% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,305,826 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $225,028,000 after purchasing an additional 143,716 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,399,327 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $185,132,000 after buying an additional 70,294 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 14.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,880,812 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $128,027,000 after acquiring an additional 241,771 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,627,073 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $110,755,000 after acquiring an additional 38,223 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,441,194 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $111,203,000 after purchasing an additional 19,023 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TECH has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Stephens dropped their price target on Bio-Techne from $92.00 to $87.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Scotiabank started coverage on Bio-Techne in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.50.

Bio-Techne Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of TECH stock traded up $2.58 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $79.63. 816,086 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,109,184. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $70.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.88. The company has a market cap of $12.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.20, a P/E/G ratio of 9.08 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.88, a current ratio of 4.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12 month low of $51.79 and a 12 month high of $89.91.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 17.59% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The business had revenue of $303.43 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.36 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.47 earnings per share. Bio-Techne’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 24th. Investors of record on Monday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.40%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 10th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Techne

In other news, Director Roeland Nusse sold 10,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 7th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,317,607.06. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 4.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.