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Meridian Bioscience’s Board Member Buys New Stake

Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) registered the first insider purchase in 2016 last week, when a Board member purchased a new stake. Catherine Sazdanoff, who was appointed to the company’s Board in August 2015, bought 7,700 shares on Friday at prices that ranged from $19.02 to $19.39 per share. Although the size of the stake is not overly large, the timing of this insider purchase may be particularly interesting. Why buy shares now and not two months ago? – A possible question at the top of investors’ minds at this point in time.

Meridian Bioscience, a life science company that develops and distributes clinical diagnostic test kits for different infectious diseases, has seen its market value decline by 5% year-to-date, partly owning to a seemingly disappointing earnings report recently released. At the end of March, Meridian Bioscience completed the $66 million-acquisition of Magellan Biosciences, which engineers, develops and manufactures products for blood testing that diagnose lead poisoning in children and adults. The deal was funded with $6 million cash on hand and a $60 million five-year term loan. In the meantime, Meridian Bioscience anticipates net revenues in the range of $195 million to $200 million for the fiscal year that ends September 30, after recording net revenues of $98.42 million for the six months ended March 31.

The life science company pays out a quarterly cash dividend of $0.20 per share, which equates to a dividend yield of 4.12%. The stock is priced at a forward P/E of 20.9, which is above the 15.5 ratio for the healthcare sector and the 18.00 for the Nasdaq 100 Index. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies had 1.57 million shares of Meridian Bioscience Inc. (NASDAQ:VIVO) in its equity portfolio at the end of December.