Guggenheim Initiates Coverage on Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG)

Research analysts at Guggenheim began coverage on shares of Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) in a research report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price target on the stock. Guggenheim’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 28.87% from the stock’s current price.

Separately, StockNews.com raised Neogen to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th.

Neogen Stock Performance

Shares of Neogen stock opened at $11.64 on Thursday. Neogen has a one year low of $11.46 and a one year high of $20.89. The company has a market capitalization of $2.52 billion, a PE ratio of -105.82 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 2.79 and a current ratio of 4.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.55.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 10th. The company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $217.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.05 million. Neogen had a negative net margin of 2.58% and a positive return on equity of 2.80%. The company’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.11 EPS. Research analysts expect that Neogen will post 0.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO John Edward Adent bought 14,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $13.80 per share, for a total transaction of $200,100.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 216,477 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,987,382.60. This trade represents a 7.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.13% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Neogen

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NEOG. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Neogen by 64.7% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 12,013,072 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,764,000 after acquiring an additional 4,717,696 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its stake in Neogen by 23.1% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 15,530,439 shares of the company’s stock valued at $242,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,914,893 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Neogen by 148.3% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,109,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,229,000 after purchasing an additional 2,454,566 shares during the period. Shapiro Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Neogen in the second quarter worth about $31,087,000. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Neogen by 86.5% during the third quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 3,986,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,017,000 after purchasing an additional 1,849,427 shares during the period. 96.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Neogen

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods.