Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO)

Royal Bank of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) in a research report released on Friday morning, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has a $401.00 target price on the medical research company’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on BIO. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $420.00 to $385.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a hold rating and issued a $315.00 price objective (down from $440.00) on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bio-Rad Laboratories has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $362.75.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories stock opened at $326.40 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 6.57, a quick ratio of 4.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -31.51 and a beta of 0.93. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a 1-year low of $261.59 and a 1-year high of $406.44. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $301.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $308.09.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The medical research company reported $3.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.99. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a negative net margin of 51.73% and a positive return on equity of 3.56%. The business had revenue of $638.50 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $645.79 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.00 earnings per share. Bio-Rad Laboratories’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 10.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Rad Laboratories

In other Bio-Rad Laboratories news, EVP Michael Crowley sold 369 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.91, for a total value of $104,024.79. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 6,573 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,994.43. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 17.06% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bio-Rad Laboratories

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories during the second quarter worth $59,000. William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. bought a new position in Bio-Rad Laboratories in the second quarter valued at $519,000. Scientech Research LLC bought a new position in Bio-Rad Laboratories in the second quarter valued at $1,186,000. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its position in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 26.2% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 649,522 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $177,391,000 after purchasing an additional 134,856 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 44.0% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,054 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. 65.24% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Company 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.