Arizona State Retirement System Acquires 882 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 46,030 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 882 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $3,316,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of TECH. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth about $43,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 60.4% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 672 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 35.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 763 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total value of $122,685.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,014,619.16. This trade represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on TECH. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird downgraded Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.14.

Bio-Techne Stock Up 1.5 %

Bio-Techne stock opened at $64.37 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $70.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $72.68. Bio-Techne Co. has a 1-year low of $58.98 and a 1-year high of $85.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.02, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 2.77.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 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%. Equities research analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.50%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 32.32%.

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.