Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Has $365,000 Stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund lowered its holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 7.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,187 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 447 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mather Group LLC. acquired a new stake in Bio-Techne in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $38,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Techne by 57.9% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 521 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the 1st quarter worth approximately $43,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter worth approximately $44,000. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Bio-Techne in the 4th quarter worth approximately $68,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TECH has been the subject of a number of research reports. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on Bio-Techne from $85.00 to $82.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Bio-Techne from $73.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $85.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $81.00.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

TECH traded down $0.47 during trading on Monday, hitting $80.13. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 387,545 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,063,687. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $76.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.88, a current ratio of 4.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Bio-Techne Co. has a 12 month low of $51.79 and a 12 month high of $85.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.41 and a beta of 1.29.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The biotechnology company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.03. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.60% and a net margin of 17.59%. The firm had revenue of $303.43 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.36 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.47 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 13th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 10th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.40%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.40%.

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.