291,040 Bio-Techne Corp $TECH Shares Sold by Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC

Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC lowered its position in Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 97.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,790 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 291,040 shares during the period. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $492,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Bio-Techne in the second quarter valued at approximately $990,924,000. HBK Investments L P acquired a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the second quarter worth approximately $482,186,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. raised its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 23.1% during the first quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 4,739,721 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $247,698,000 after purchasing an additional 888,798 shares during the period. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. raised its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 131.4% during the first quarter. Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb L.P. now owns 3,392,001 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $177,266,000 after purchasing an additional 1,926,066 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,973,136 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $103,118,000 after purchasing an additional 178,843 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Benchmark restated a “hold” rating on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Bio-Techne from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $62.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Argus cut Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.92.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

TECH stock opened at $72.73 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.35, a current ratio of 4.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a market cap of $11.42 billion, a PE ratio of 63.24, a P/E/G ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a 50 day moving average of $72.47 and a 200-day moving average of $63.35. Bio-Techne Corp has a 12-month low of $43.19 and a 12-month high of $72.83.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The biotechnology company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 13.23% and a net margin of 14.97%. The business had revenue of $321.19 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $314.63 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.53 earnings per share. Bio-Techne’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. This is a drop from Bio-Techne’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.65. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 27.83%.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation is a life sciences company that develops and supplies research and diagnostic products for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, academic, clinical and other laboratory customers. The company supports biological research, drug discovery and development, and diagnostic testing through a portfolio of reagents, instruments and analytical technologies.

Its products include proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, flow cytometry reagents, molecular biology tools and cell culture materials.