Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH Boosts Holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 11.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 254,034 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,650 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH owned about 0.16% of Bio-Techne worth $18,298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of TECH. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Bio-Techne during the 3rd quarter valued at $43,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 60.4% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 672 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 51.5% in the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 612 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on TECH. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock 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 increased 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 report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.00.

Bio-Techne Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of TECH stock opened at $78.71 on Thursday. 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. The stock has a market cap of $12.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.73, a P/E/G ratio of 5.59 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.46.

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

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were paid 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 dividend yield of 0.41%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.04%.

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.