Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Sells 362 Shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lowered its stake in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 8.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,706 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 362 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in TECH. Empirical Finance LLC raised its holdings in Bio-Techne by 4.1% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,080 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT increased its position in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $778,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in Bio-Techne by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $605,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp lifted its position in Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 13,223 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,057,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TECH has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Baird R W lowered Bio-Techne from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.29.

Insider Activity at Bio-Techne

In other news, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of Bio-Techne stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total transaction of $1,035,067.68. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,014,619.16. The trade was a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total value of $122,685.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 1,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This trade represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

NASDAQ TECH opened at $61.75 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.77, a current ratio of 3.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.37, a PEG ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $71.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $73.09. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52 week low of $60.94 and a 52 week high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.73% and a net margin of 13.22%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Monday, February 17th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.32%.

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.