Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Short Interest Down 24.9% in July

Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,770,000 shares, a decrease of 24.9% from the June 30th total of 5,020,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,070,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 17.7% in the second quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 311,037 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $22,286,000 after acquiring an additional 46,790 shares during the period. Railway Pension Investments Ltd lifted its stake in Bio-Techne by 19.2% during the second quarter. Railway Pension Investments Ltd now owns 226,700 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $16,243,000 after purchasing an additional 36,500 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the 2nd quarter worth about $924,000. DT Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,188,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on TECH shares. Citigroup downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price 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. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Bio-Techne from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.00.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of Bio-Techne stock opened at $80.60 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.41 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a current ratio of 4.08, a quick ratio of 2.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.98. Bio-Techne has a 12 month low of $51.79 and a 12 month high of $85.95.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released 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 net margin of 17.59% and a return on equity of 13.60%. The firm had revenue of $303.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.36 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.47 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne will post 1.56 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

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

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.