Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 15.7% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,349,712 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 319,177 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $120,893,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its position in 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 worth $314,609,000 after purchasing an additional 3,030,644 shares during the last quarter. RGM Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne during the first quarter worth about $59,267,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 6.8% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 11,375,279 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $666,933,000 after buying an additional 721,012 shares during the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP acquired a new position in Bio-Techne in the 1st quarter valued at about $39,658,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Bio-Techne by 45.7% in the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,912,377 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $112,123,000 after acquiring an additional 599,982 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of Bio-Techne stock opened at $65.90 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $56.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.03. Bio-Techne Corp has a 12-month low of $46.01 and a 12-month high of $80.80. The company has a current ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 143.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 1.48.

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

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on TECH. Stephens upgraded Bio-Techne to a “strong-buy” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $60.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bio-Techne presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.58.

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.