William Blair Investment Management LLC Purchases 1,074,825 Shares of Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG)

William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 14,346,759 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,074,825 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned approximately 6.61% of Neogen worth $174,170,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cibc World Markets Corp purchased a new position in shares of Neogen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $248,000. Nicholas Company Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Neogen by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. now owns 432,098 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,246,000 after purchasing an additional 17,134 shares during the last quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Neogen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Neogen by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 39,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $477,000 after purchasing an additional 2,267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Neogen by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 404,837 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,915,000 after purchasing an additional 3,200 shares during the last quarter. 96.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO David H. Naemura bought 14,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $11.11 per share, for a total transaction of $164,428.00. Following the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 61,434 shares in the company, valued at approximately $682,531.74. This represents a 31.74 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO John Edward Adent bought 23,035 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were bought at an average price of $11.03 per share, with a total value of $254,076.05. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 269,164 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,968,878.92. The trade was a 9.36 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Neogen Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NEOG opened at $9.05 on Monday. Neogen Co. has a twelve month low of $9.01 and a twelve month high of $18.58. The firm has a market cap of $1.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.13 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50 day moving average of $10.83 and a 200 day moving average of $13.23. The company has a quick ratio of 2.46, a current ratio of 3.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 10th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.12. Neogen had a negative net margin of 52.12% and a positive return on equity of 2.89%. The company had revenue of $231.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $227.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Neogen Co. will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 target price (down from $16.50) on shares of Neogen in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Guggenheim assumed coverage on shares of Neogen in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price objective for the company.

About Neogen

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods.