Securian Asset Management Inc. Has $417,000 Stake in Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Securian Asset Management Inc. decreased its position in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,100 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $417,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of TECH. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 129.8% during the 1st quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 5,366,003 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $314,609,000 after buying an additional 3,030,644 shares during the period. RGM Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the 1st quarter valued at $59,267,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,375,279 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $666,933,000 after buying an additional 721,012 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the 1st quarter valued at $39,658,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 45.7% during the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,912,377 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $112,123,000 after buying an additional 599,982 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Friday. Zacks Research raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $55.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, August 21st. Stephens upgraded shares of Bio-Techne to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $90.00 to $75.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.58.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

Shares of TECH opened at $65.90 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 143.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 1.48. Bio-Techne Corp has a one year low of $46.01 and a one year high of $80.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 3.46 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $56.44 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.00.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $316.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.14 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 6.02% and a return on equity of 13.43%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.49 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 29th. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 69.57%.

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.