California State Teachers Retirement System Boosts Stock Position in Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Key Points

• California State Teachers Retirement System dramatically increased its Bio-Techne stake by 6,800.5% in the second quarter, reaching 12.7 million shares worth approximately $897.8 million, or 8.1% of the company.
• Analysts remain cautious: Bio-Techne has a consensus “Hold” rating from MarketBeat, with two Buy ratings and 15 Hold ratings and an average price target of $68.92.
• Bio-Techne met quarterly earnings expectations at $0.52 per share and exceeded revenue estimates with $321.2 million in sales. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to $0.65 per share, implying a 3.6% annualized yield.

California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH - Free Report) by 6,800.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,708,310 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after acquiring an additional 12,524,146 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 8.10% of Bio-Techne worth $897,842,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 12.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,063,939 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $62,379,000 after purchasing an additional 113,634 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 40.0% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 13,356 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $783,000 after buying an additional 3,814 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 506.3% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 673 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 562 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1,085.7% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 105,418 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $5,424,000 after acquiring an additional 96,527 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 82.6% in the second quarter. Natixis now owns 24,991 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $1,286,000 after acquiring an additional 11,306 shares in the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on TECH. Zacks Research upgraded Bio-Techne from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Leerink Partners set a $73.00 target price on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $73.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $73.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a "hold (c-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fifteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $68.92.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of TECH opened at $72.12 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.58 and a beta of 1.28. Bio-Techne Corp has a 52-week low of $43.19 and a 52-week high of $72.62. The company has a quick ratio of 3.35, a current ratio of 4.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $71.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.61.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.52. The company had revenue of $321.19 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $314.63 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 14.97% and a return on equity of 13.23%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Investors of record on Monday, August 24th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 24th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. This is an increase from Bio-Techne's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Bio-Techne's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.83%.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation NASDAQ: TECH is a global life sciences company that develops and supplies research, diagnostic and bioprocessing products. Its portfolio includes proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, molecular biology reagents, cell and gene therapy tools, and instruments used by academic, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostic laboratories.

The company operates through brands including R&D Systems, Novus Biologicals, ProteinSimple and Advanced Cell Diagnostics. Its products support applications such as protein analysis, spatial biology, single-cell research, biomarker discovery, drug development and the manufacture of cell and gene therapies.

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