Franklin Resources Inc. Increases Stock Position in Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG)

Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG) by 33.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 923,918 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 233,796 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Neogen were worth $15,531,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NEOG. Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Neogen by 23.1% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 15,530,439 shares of the company’s stock worth $242,741,000 after buying an additional 2,914,893 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Neogen by 64.7% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 12,013,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $187,764,000 after acquiring an additional 4,717,696 shares in the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Neogen by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 8,706,224 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,352,000 after acquiring an additional 1,711,238 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Neogen by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,932,192 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,340,000 after purchasing an additional 236,762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bamco Inc. NY boosted its holdings in Neogen by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 7,303,115 shares of the company’s stock valued at $122,765,000 after purchasing an additional 98,067 shares during the period. 96.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Neogen Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of Neogen stock opened at $12.04 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.52. The firm has a market cap of $2.61 billion, a PE ratio of -109.45 and a beta of 1.21. Neogen Co. has a 1 year low of $11.46 and a 1 year high of $20.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 4.41 and a quick ratio of 2.79.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 10th. The company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $217.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $215.05 million. Neogen had a positive return on equity of 2.80% and a negative net margin of 2.58%. The business’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.11 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Neogen Co. will post 0.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on NEOG shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Neogen to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Neogen in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $15.00 target price on the stock.

Insider Transactions at Neogen

In other Neogen news, CEO John Edward Adent acquired 14,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $13.80 per share, for a total transaction of $200,100.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now owns 216,477 shares in the company, valued at $2,987,382.60. The trade was a 7.18 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.13% of the company’s stock.

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.