Northrop Grumman Corporation vs BIO-TECHNE Corp — how do they compare? Northrop Grumman Corporation trades at $575 (market cap $82.10B), while BIO-TECHNE Corp trades at $72.17 (market cap $11.24B). The key difference: Northrop Grumman Corporation is far larger — about 7.3× BIO-TECHNE Corp's market cap, and Northrop Grumman Corporation pays the higher dividend (1.63%). Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| NOC | TECH | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $82.10B | $11.24B |
Sector | Industrials | Health |
52-Week High | $768.02 | $72.29 |
52-Week Low | $496.02 | $43.31 |
Enterprise Value | $96.08B | $11.32B |
Dividend Yield | 1.63% | 0.44% |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Northrop Grumman (NOC) trades at $571.58, up 0.68% on the day, with a bullish technical signal driven by moving averages despite overbought RSI readings. The company reported strong Q2 2026 earnings, beating EPS estimates with $7.68 actual versus $6.82 expected, and raised full-year guidance amid a record $105 billion backlog. Fundamentals show robust profitability with a 10.48% net income margin and 26.96% ROE, while valuation metrics like a P/E of 18.17 appear reasonable relative to growth.
Outlook remains positive given defense spending tailwinds and contract wins like the $7.6 billion Sentinel program, though margin pressures and high debt levels pose risks. Analysts are bullish with a $598.57 consensus target, implying ~5% upside from current levels, supported by 20 buy ratings versus 1 sell.
Bio-Techne (TECH) trades at $72.29, up 0.54% today, with a bullish technical signal from moving averages and a consensus analyst price target of $71.67. Recent earnings showed mixed results, with a Q4 2025 beat but a Q1 2026 miss. The company maintains strong gross margins at 64.96% but faces declining net income margins, down to 6.01% in 2025. Positive cash flow trends and a pending acquisition by Merck highlight ongoing corporate developments.
Outlook is balanced with growth potential from product innovation and acquisition synergies, but risks include earnings volatility, high valuation multiples, and shareholder litigation over the merger terms. Institutional sentiment is split evenly between buy and hold ratings, reflecting cautious optimism amid execution challenges.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Latest headlines on both assets
Northrop Grumman is a defense contractor that is diversified across short-cycle and long-cycle businesses. The firm's segments include aeronautics, mission systems, defense services, and space systems. The company's aerospace segment creates the fuselage for the massive F-35 program and produces various piloted and autonomous flight systems. Mission systems creates a variety of sensors and processors for defense hardware. The defense systems segment is a long-range missile manufacturer. Finally, the company's space systems segment produces various space structures, sensors, and satellites.
Read more on NOC →Based in Minnesota, Bio-Techne is a life sciences manufacturer supplying consumables and instruments for the pharma, biotech, academic, and diagnostic markets. The company reports in two segments, protein sciences (75% of revenue), and diagnostics and genomics (25%). The protein-focused segment makes equipment and associated consumables for protein characterization and analysis and sells antibodies for research and clinical purposes. In diagnostics, Bio-Techne provides controls and calibrators for diagnostic manufacturers and has a portfolio of diagnostic oncology assays. The United States accounts for about 55% of revenue, and the firm also has operations in EMEA (20% of sales), the U.K. (5%), and APAC (15%), with the rest of the world accounting for the remaining 5%.
Read more on TECH →