Seeking Alpha: Can New Management Drive New Growth At Techne?

Techne (TECH) has always been a little different in the realm of publicly-traded life science companies. While the company's headquarters are pretty pleasant once you're inside, the surroundings are a pretty nondescript commercial/light industrial zone. Likewise, it's a little strange to sit down as an analyst with a management team that tells you they will not do road shows or conference calls, and doesn't much care whether they get any attention from Wall Street at all.

None of this is meant as a criticism against the company - management was always unfailingly polite and helpful to me in my analyst days, and the company's stock has generated excellent returns over the past 20 and 10 years. Where there is an issue, though, is in the more recent performance, where Techne has notably lagged other life sciences companies like Thermo Fisher (TMO), Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL) and more specialized/focused companies like Illumina (ILMN).

I'm optimistic about the potential for new management to put Techne on a more growth-oriented footing, not only with an expanded international focus but also perhaps a wider view of the company's addressable market opportunities. While I could see bull-case upside into the low $80s for Techne, that requires a level of transformation that is pretty aggressive. A more probable trajectory suggests Techne is close to fair value today, but still offers good near-real time exposure to life sciences spending.

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Can New Management Drive New Growth At Techne?