Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) Shares Up 4.5% – Should You Buy?

Neogen Co. (NASDAQ:NEOG) rose 4.5% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $12.16 and last traded at $12.16. Approximately 395,725 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 79% from the average daily volume of 1,906,530 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.64.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NEOG has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Neogen to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Guggenheim initiated coverage on Neogen in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $15.00 price objective for the company.

Neogen Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 4.41, a quick ratio of 2.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market cap of $2.61 billion, a P/E ratio of -109.45 and a beta of 1.21. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.52.

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

Insider Activity at Neogen

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

Institutional Trading of Neogen

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Inspire Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Neogen by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 26,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in Neogen by 2.6% during the third quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 35,930 shares of the company’s stock valued at $604,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares during the period. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Neogen by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 57,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $900,000 after purchasing an additional 1,079 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of Neogen by 142.6% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,982 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its holdings in Neogen by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 36,630 shares of the company’s stock valued at $573,000 after buying an additional 1,190 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 96.73% of the company’s stock.

Neogen Company Profile

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.