Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. Acquires 9,010 Shares of Bio-Techne Corp $TECH

Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne Corp (NASDAQ:TECH) by 10.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 95,623 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,010 shares during the quarter. Wilkins Investment Counsel Inc. owned about 0.06% of Bio-Techne worth $5,320,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bio-Techne by 9.5% in the second quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 565,601 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,100,000 after buying an additional 48,838 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH grew its position in Bio-Techne by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 474,320 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $26,386,000 after acquiring an additional 35,165 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Bio-Techne by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,552,440 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $79,873,000 after acquiring an additional 41,180 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC purchased a new position in Bio-Techne in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $270,000. Finally, 4D Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Bio-Techne in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,058,000. 98.95% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on TECH shares. Evercore ISI set a $62.00 price objective on Bio-Techne and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $65.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.57.

Bio-Techne Stock Performance

NASDAQ:TECH opened at $71.38 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.81, a current ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.23. The stock has a market cap of $11.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 145.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.79 and a beta of 1.47. Bio-Techne Corp has a twelve month low of $46.01 and a twelve month high of $79.28.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.42. The firm had revenue of $286.56 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $292.02 million. Bio-Techne had a net margin of 6.41% and a return on equity of 13.59%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.42 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Bio-Techne Corp will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 17th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 65.31%.

Bio-Techne Profile

Bio-Techne Corporation (NASDAQ:TECH) is a global life sciences company that develops, manufactures and sells high-quality reagents, instruments and services for the research, diagnostic and bioprocessing markets. Its core product offerings include recombinant proteins, antibodies, immunoassays, nucleic acid probes and kits, single-cell analysis solutions and automated protein analysis systems. Flagship brands such as R&D Systems, Novus Biologicals, ProteinSimple and Advanced Cell Diagnostics provide researchers and clinicians with reliable tools for cell biology, immunology, proteomics and genomics applications.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bio-Techne serves customers across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region through a combination of direct sales, distributors and strategic partnerships.