Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Cuts Stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd reduced its stake in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 65.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,291 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 10,000 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $423,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of TECH. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 135.5% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 31,990 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,252,000 after acquiring an additional 18,404 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,714,994 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $122,879,000 after buying an additional 290,510 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp grew its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 60.6% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 30,122 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,158,000 after purchasing an additional 11,371 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 9.8% during the 2nd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 81,138 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $5,424,000 after purchasing an additional 7,275 shares during the period. Finally, Comerica Bank lifted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 14.8% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 53,246 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $3,748,000 after purchasing an additional 6,845 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on TECH shares. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.78.

Bio-Techne Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:TECH opened at $75.38 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.43 and a beta of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $73.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $75.14. The company has a current ratio of 4.56, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12-month low of $61.16 and a 12-month high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.76% and a net margin of 12.86%. The business had revenue of $289.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $280.22 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. Bio-Techne’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.42%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is currently 34.04%.

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.