Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Stock Holdings Lowered by Polen Capital Management LLC

Polen Capital Management LLC cut its position in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 24.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,760 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 6,683 shares during the quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $1,495,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,080 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT increased its holdings in Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $778,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,967 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $862,000 after acquiring an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $605,000 after purchasing an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on TECH shares. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Baird R W downgraded Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $82.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Techne

In other news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,004 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of Bio-Techne stock opened at $62.16 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $9.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.79, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. Bio-Techne Co. has a 1 year low of $56.60 and a 1 year high of $85.57. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $72.30. The company has a current ratio of 3.94, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 17th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.