Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Sells 5,510 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans reduced its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 165,838 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 5,510 shares during the quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans owned approximately 0.10% of Bio-Techne worth $11,967,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 168 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne in the third quarter valued at $43,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 60.4% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 672 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 35.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 763 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TECH has been the subject of several analyst reports. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird cut shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of 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 raised their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.25.

Insider Transactions at Bio-Techne

In other news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction on 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 owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction on 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 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 0.4 %

Shares of Bio-Techne stock opened at $60.61 on Friday. Bio-Techne Co. has a 1 year low of $56.60 and a 1 year high of $85.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 3.94 and a quick ratio of 2.77. The company has a market capitalization of $9.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $71.88.

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

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.32%.

Bio-Techne Company 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.