Sentry Investment Management LLC Invests $59,000 in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 735 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of TECH. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 92.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,746,119 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $404,470,000 after purchasing an additional 2,755,065 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in Bio-Techne by 8.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,862,260 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $205,081,000 after buying an additional 216,044 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Bio-Techne by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,589,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $185,559,000 after buying an additional 88,257 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in Bio-Techne by 20.4% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,714,994 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $122,879,000 after buying an additional 290,510 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Bio-Techne by 1.3% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 995,824 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $70,095,000 after acquiring an additional 12,991 shares in the last quarter. 98.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TECH has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank raised their price target on Bio-Techne from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on shares of Bio-Techne in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of Bio-Techne from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $81.78.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of TECH opened at $77.62 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $73.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $74.96. The firm has a market cap of $12.31 billion, a PE ratio of 82.58, a P/E/G ratio of 5.47 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 4.56, a quick ratio of 3.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Bio-Techne Co. has a 1-year low of $55.63 and a 1-year high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $289.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $280.22 million. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.76% and a net margin of 12.86%. Bio-Techne’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.35 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.7 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. Bio-Techne’s payout ratio is 34.04%.

Bio-Techne Company Profile

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.