Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) Shares Gap Down to $290.86

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) shares gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $290.86, but opened at $275.83. Bio-Rad Laboratories shares last traded at $273.29, with a volume of 49,068 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $484.00 to $480.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup lowered shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $400.00 to $365.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $395.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $468.00.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 5.83, a quick ratio of 4.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $331.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $321.00. The company has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a P/E ratio of -12.71 and a beta of 0.87.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last posted 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 negative net margin of 23.86% and a positive return on equity of 3.90%. The company had revenue of $681.18 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $685.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.31 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. will post 10.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bio-Rad Laboratories

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

Institutional Trading of Bio-Rad Laboratories

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,389,889 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $771,671,000 after purchasing an additional 46,119 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 1.0% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,598,604 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $765,763,000 after purchasing an additional 16,216 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 0.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 958,704 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $399,914,000 after purchasing an additional 2,869 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 3.1% during the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 955,732 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $342,582,000 after purchasing an additional 28,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 12.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 460,215 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $220,452,000 after purchasing an additional 51,419 shares during the last quarter. 65.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.