William Blair Investment Management LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

William Blair Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 47.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,132,994 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 1,039,231 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.72% of Bio-Techne worth $81,179,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TECH. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 734,105 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $56,646,000 after acquiring an additional 118,534 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 856,514 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $66,089,000 after acquiring an additional 119,295 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 55.3% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 261,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $20,166,000 after acquiring an additional 93,107 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 135,632 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $10,465,000 after acquiring an additional 11,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 152.0% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 32,378 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,498,000 after acquiring an additional 19,530 shares in the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bio-Techne Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of TECH stock opened at $74.67 on Friday. Bio-Techne Co. has a 1 year low of $51.79 and a 1 year high of $85.57. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $74.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 3.87 and a quick ratio of 2.75. The company has a market cap of $11.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.26, a PEG ratio of 4.95 and a beta of 1.27.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 14.50% and a return on equity of 12.88%. The firm had revenue of $306.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.43%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.40%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on TECH. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Citigroup downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bio-Techne currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $80.60.

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.