Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Short Interest Up 15.6% in November

Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,080,000 shares, a growth of 15.6% from the November 15th total of 3,530,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 927,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Techne

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TECH. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,395,993 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $511,232,000 after acquiring an additional 95,133 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,862,260 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $205,081,000 after purchasing an additional 216,044 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,589,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $185,559,000 after purchasing an additional 88,257 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Bio-Techne in the third quarter valued at about $89,724,000. Finally, American Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Bio-Techne by 2.5% during the third quarter. American Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,114,393 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $89,073,000 after buying an additional 27,508 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

TECH traded down $0.99 during trading on Friday, reaching $75.69. 487,423 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 947,043. The company has a market capitalization of $12.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.52, a PEG ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 3.26, a current ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $73.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $74.61. Bio-Techne has a fifty-two week low of $61.16 and a fifty-two week high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.04. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 12.86% and a return on equity of 12.76%. The business had revenue of $289.46 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $280.22 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Bio-Techne will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.00.

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.