Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Raises Holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH - Free Report) by 13.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,654,267 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,229,954 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 6.71% of Bio-Techne worth $767,428,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of TECH. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,594,608 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $1,339,370,000 after acquiring an additional 275,644 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,001,296 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $287,488,000 after purchasing an additional 98,660 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,820,464 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $275,188,000 after purchasing an additional 358,756 shares during the period. Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 3,581,778 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $257,995,000 after purchasing an additional 65,686 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 21.0% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,040,840 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $147,002,000 after purchasing an additional 354,478 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TECH has been the topic of several research reports. Baird R W lowered shares of Bio-Techne from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp restated a "sector weight" rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered shares of Bio-Techne from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $81.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company's stock.

Bio-Techne Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:TECH traded up $0.28 on Tuesday, hitting $50.53. The stock had a trading volume of 383,369 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,215,764. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.94. The stock has a market cap of $7.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.45. Bio-Techne Co. has a 1 year low of $46.01 and a 1 year high of $85.57. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $57.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $67.55.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. Analysts predict that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. Bio-Techne's dividend payout ratio is currently 32.32%.

Bio-Techne Profile

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.