GAM Holding AG Buys Shares of 1,001 Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO)

GAM Holding AG bought a new stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,001 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $323,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BIO. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 14.0% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,286 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 23.0% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 5,872 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,097 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 2,891 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,628,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 501 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $283,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 65,094 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $36,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,936 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BIO. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $484.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Bio-Rad Laboratories from $395.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. StockNews.com upgraded Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Citigroup cut Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $400.00 to $365.00 in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bio-Rad Laboratories presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $468.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Rad Laboratories

In other news, EVP Michael Crowley sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.00, for a total transaction of $1,008,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,942 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,332,512. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 17.06% of the company’s stock.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Stock Performance

BIO traded up $0.23 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $328.41. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 65,504 shares, compared to its average volume of 200,085. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 4.34 and a current ratio of 5.83. The company’s 50-day moving average is $333.80 and its 200-day moving average is $324.03. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. has a 52 week low of $261.59 and a 52 week high of $494.05. The firm has a market cap of $9.37 billion, a PE ratio of -15.27 and a beta of 0.87.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The medical research company reported $3.10 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.93 by $0.17. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a positive return on equity of 3.90% and a negative net margin of 23.86%. The firm had revenue of $681.18 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.31 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. will post 10.41 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Profile

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc manufactures and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures, and markets instruments, systems, reagents, and consumables to separate, purify, characterize, and quantitate biological materials such as cells, proteins, and nucleic acids for proteomics, genomics, biopharmaceutical production, cellular biology, and food safety markets.