New York State Teachers Retirement System Has $1.98 Million Position in Meridian Bioscience Inc. (VIVO)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its position in shares of Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) by 4.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 143,601 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,000 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.34% of Meridian Bioscience worth $1,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in Meridian Bioscience by 6.1% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,988,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,438,000 after buying an additional 115,076 shares during the last quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC raised its position in Meridian Bioscience by 142.8% in the first quarter. Citadel Advisors LLC now owns 166,326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,295,000 after buying an additional 97,822 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Meridian Bioscience by 2.1% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,427,828 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,704,000 after buying an additional 29,755 shares during the period. RiverPoint Capital Management LLC raised its position in Meridian Bioscience by 2.9% in the first quarter. RiverPoint Capital Management LLC now owns 20,965 shares of the company’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 599 shares during the period. Finally, Kennedy Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Meridian Bioscience during the first quarter valued at $1,954,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 85.87% of the company’s stock.

Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ VIVO) traded up 0.74% on Friday, hitting $13.70. The company had a trading volume of 145,971 shares. The firm has a market capitalization of $578.17 million, a PE ratio of 27.40 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $15.21 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.12. Meridian Bioscience Inc. has a 12-month low of $10.75 and a 12-month high of $19.85.

Meridian Bioscience (NASDAQ:VIVO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $0.16. Meridian Bioscience had a return on equity of 16.93% and a net margin of 10.77%. The company had revenue of $50.14 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $49.13 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Meridian Bioscience Inc. will post $0.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 7th will be issued a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 3rd. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.65%. Meridian Bioscience’s payout ratio is currently 98.04%.

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A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VIVO. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Meridian Bioscience from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 29th. Canaccord Genuity raised their price objective on shares of Meridian Bioscience from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, BidaskClub downgraded shares of Meridian Bioscience from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company. Meridian Bioscience presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.75.

About Meridian Bioscience

Meridian Bioscience, Inc is a life science company engaged in the development, manufacture, sale and distribution of diagnostic test kits for gastrointestinal, viral, respiratory and parasitic infectious diseases, and elevated blood lead levels, and the manufacture and distribution of bulk antigens, antibodies, polymerase chain reaction (PCR)/quantitative PCR (qPCR) reagents, nucleotides, competent cells and bioresearch reagents used by researchers and other diagnostic manufacturers.