M&T Bank Corp Has $1.01 Million Stock Holdings in Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH)

M&T Bank Corp trimmed its position in shares of Bio-Techne Co. (NASDAQ:TECH) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,958 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 558 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Bio-Techne were worth $1,005,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empirical Finance LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 4.1% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 4,080 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $326,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT boosted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT now owns 10,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $778,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 46.4% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 530 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 8,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $605,000 after acquiring an additional 189 shares during the period. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Bio-Techne by 1.5% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 13,223 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,057,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the period. 98.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Amy E. Herr sold 1,860 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.96, for a total transaction of $122,685.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,336.96. This represents a 48.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Kim Kelderman sold 13,392 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.29, for a total value of $1,035,067.68. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 39,004 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,014,619.16. This trade represents a 25.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 3.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TECH has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. StockNews.com lowered Bio-Techne from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Robert W. Baird lowered Bio-Techne from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $88.00 to $68.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Bio-Techne from $79.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on Bio-Techne from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bio-Techne presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.14.

Bio-Techne Price Performance

Shares of TECH opened at $58.47 on Wednesday. Bio-Techne Co. has a 52-week low of $58.20 and a 52-week high of $85.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.77 and a current ratio of 3.94. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $70.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $72.62. The firm has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 59.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.30.

Bio-Techne (NASDAQ:TECH) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.03). Bio-Techne had a net margin of 13.22% and a return on equity of 12.73%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Bio-Techne Co. will post 1.67 EPS for the current year.

Bio-Techne Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 17th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Bio-Techne’s dividend payout ratio is 32.32%.

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.