Bio-Techne Corp $TECH Stock Sold by Palisade Asset Management LLC

Key Points

• Palisade Asset Management cut its Bio-Techne holdings by 62.6% in the third quarter, selling 34,600 shares and retaining 20,684 shares valued at about $1.5 million.
• Analyst views were mixed, but Bio-Techne’s consensus rating was Hold, with an average price target of $68.92.
• Bio-Techne met quarterly EPS estimates at $0.44 and reported revenue above forecasts ($299.7 million vs. $292.6 million); it also lowered its quarterly dividend to $0.08 from $0.65.

Palisade Asset Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH - Free Report) by 62.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,684 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after selling 34,600 shares during the period. Palisade Asset Management LLC's holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $1,499,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the second quarter valued at approximately $990,924,000. HBK Investments L P bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the second quarter worth $482,186,000. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 131.4% in the first quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. now owns 3,392,001 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $177,266,000 after purchasing an additional 1,926,066 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 2,426.8% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 1,827,241 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $129,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754,926 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Bio-Techne in the second quarter valued at about $90,305,000. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TECH has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Argus cut shares of Bio-Techne from a "strong-buy" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $62.00 to $73.00 in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Benchmark reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Bio-Techne from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Bio-Techne presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $68.92.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of TECH stock opened at $72.78 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.35, a current ratio of 4.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Bio-Techne Corp has a twelve month low of $43.19 and a twelve month high of $72.83. The company has a market cap of $11.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.29, a P/E/G ratio of 5.28 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $72.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.38.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 4th. The biotechnology company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.44. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.23% and a net margin of 14.97%. The business had revenue of $299.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.60 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This is a decrease from Bio-Techne's previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Bio-Techne's dividend payout ratio is 27.83%.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

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