Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Sells 63,686 Shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. cut its position in shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) by 86.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,977 shares of the company’s stock after selling 63,686 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $441,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in Qiagen by 41.5% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 856 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in Qiagen by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 9,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $438,000 after buying an additional 341 shares during the last quarter. Pitcairn Co. boosted its stake in Qiagen by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 6,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $312,000 after buying an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 19,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $883,000 after purchasing an additional 397 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 86,474 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,851,000 after purchasing an additional 426 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on QGEN. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Redburn Atlantic lowered Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Baird R W lowered Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Qiagen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.42.

Qiagen Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of NYSE QGEN opened at $42.65 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a current ratio of 3.61. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $40.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.80. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $37.63 and a fifty-two week high of $49.30. The company has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.76, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $483.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $465.66 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. Qiagen’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.44 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials.