Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) Short Interest Up 15.6% in November

Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,080,000 shares, a growth of 15.6% from the November 15th total of 3,530,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 927,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bio-Techne

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its stake in Bio-Techne by 922.5% during the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 409 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Bio-Techne during the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. DT Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in Bio-Techne during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in Bio-Techne in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. 98.95% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TECH shares. StockNews.com upgraded Bio-Techne from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Bio-Techne from $83.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Bio-Techne from $82.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.00.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of Bio-Techne stock opened at $76.16 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.02, a PEG ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 3.26, a current ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $73.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.57. Bio-Techne has a 52 week low of $61.16 and a 52 week high of $85.57.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The biotechnology company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.04. Bio-Techne had a return on equity of 12.76% and a net margin of 12.86%. The company had revenue of $289.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $280.22 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Bio-Techne will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.42%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is 34.04%.

About Bio-Techne

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.