Bio-Techne Co. (TECH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.08 on February 28th

Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share by the biotechnology company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th.

Bio-Techne has a dividend payout ratio of 14.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Bio-Techne to earn $2.01 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.9%.

Bio-Techne Trading Down 2.3 %

Bio-Techne stock opened at $68.34 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.94, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Bio-Techne has a 12-month low of $61.16 and a 12-month high of $85.57. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $74.31 and a 200 day moving average of $74.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.03, a P/E/G ratio of 5.54 and a beta of 1.27.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Bio-Techne will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on TECH. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total transaction of $1,035,067.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,014,619.16. This represents a 25.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

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.