Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) Trading Up 5.9% – Time to Buy?

Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG)’s share price rose 5.9% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $8.93 and last traded at $8.93. Approximately 1,404,961 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 35% from the average daily volume of 2,148,215 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.43.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NEOG has been the subject of several research reports. Guggenheim initiated coverage on shares of Neogen in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $15.00 target price for the company. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $13.00 price target (down from $16.50) on shares of Neogen in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st.

Neogen Stock Up 6.1 %

The company has a current ratio of 3.77, a quick ratio of 2.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $10.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.94 billion, a PE ratio of -4.08 and a beta of 1.27.

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 10th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by $0.12. The business had revenue of $231.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $227.16 million. Neogen had a negative net margin of 52.12% and a positive return on equity of 2.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Neogen Co. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Neogen

In related news, CFO David H. Naemura acquired 14,800 shares of Neogen stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $11.11 per share, with a total value of $164,428.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 61,434 shares in the company, valued at $682,531.74. This trade represents a 31.74 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO John Edward Adent acquired 23,035 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was bought at an average price of $11.03 per share, with a total value of $254,076.05. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 269,164 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,968,878.92. This represents a 9.36 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Neogen

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harbour Investments Inc. bought a new position in shares of Neogen in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Neogen by 196.7% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,368 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 2,233 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Neogen in the fourth quarter worth $43,000. Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Neogen by 41.4% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 1,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in Neogen during the third quarter valued at $66,000. 96.73% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.