Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

BIO has been the topic of several other research reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $350.00 to $375.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $265.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bio-Rad Laboratories currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $358.50.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Stock Down 12.2%

NYSE BIO opened at $256.87 on Friday. Bio-Rad Laboratories has a 1-year low of $211.43 and a 1-year high of $343.12. The company has a market capitalization of $6.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.20 and a beta of 1.18. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $304.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $301.63. The company has a current ratio of 5.62, a quick ratio of 4.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The medical research company reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.57 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $693.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $694.64 million. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a return on equity of 3.86% and a net margin of 29.42%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.90 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Bio-Rad Laboratories will post 10.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Rad Laboratories

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 52.9% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 104 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 24.0% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 207 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 3.0% during the second quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 1,806 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $436,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 1.9% in the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,871 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $693,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 26.7% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 256 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $78,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc is a global provider of life science research and clinical diagnostic products. The company operates through two primary business segments: Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. Within the Life Science segment, Bio-Rad offers instruments, reagents and consumables for protein analysis, cell biology, gene expression and other molecular biology applications. The Clinical Diagnostics segment supplies quality control products, blood-typing reagents and instruments, and molecular diagnostic assays used in blood screening, infectious disease testing and routine clinical laboratories.

Founded in 1952 by David and Alice Schwartz and headquartered in Hercules, California, Bio-Rad has grown its footprint across the Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and other regions.