Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) Stock Price Down 5.7% – Time to Sell?

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) traded down 5.7% during trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $359.18 and last traded at $356.1140. 108,769 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 315,435 shares. The stock had previously closed at $377.71.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BIO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “sell (d)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $300.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories from $320.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Bio-Rad Laboratories from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $343.33.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 3.14 and a quick ratio of 2.33. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $365.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $313.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.55 billion, a PE ratio of 43.38 and a beta of 1.07.

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The medical research company reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.75 by $0.87. Bio-Rad Laboratories had a return on equity of 3.54% and a net margin of 8.59%.The firm had revenue of $651.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $623.99 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.61 EPS. Bio-Rad Laboratories’s quarterly revenue was down .1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. will post 9.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Bio-Rad Laboratories

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BIO. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,089,323 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $303,637,000 after acquiring an additional 12,251 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its position in shares of Bio-Rad Laboratories by 18.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 494,472 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $149,820,000 after purchasing an additional 76,117 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 57.8% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 233,227 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $68,478,000 after purchasing an additional 85,393 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 165,107 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $50,026,000 after purchasing an additional 9,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Bio-Rad Laboratories in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,600,000. Institutional investors own 65.24% of the company’s stock.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc is a global life science research and clinical diagnostics company headquartered in Hercules, California. Founded in 1952, the company develops, manufactures and sells products that support scientific research, biotechnology production, medical testing and quality assurance.

Its Life Science segment provides instruments, reagents, consumables and software used in areas such as genomics, proteomics, cell biology, digital PCR, electrophoresis, chromatography and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.