Wormser Freres Gestion Reduces Stock Position in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Wormser Freres Gestion lessened its stake in shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,629 shares of the company’s stock after selling 751 shares during the quarter. Qiagen makes up approximately 0.5% of Wormser Freres Gestion’s holdings, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Wormser Freres Gestion’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $923,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Groupama Asset Managment grew its holdings in Qiagen by 8,074.0% in the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 31,817,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,416,844,000 after buying an additional 32,216,761 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Qiagen by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 25,319,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,127,470,000 after buying an additional 2,202,040 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Qiagen by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,782,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $970,534,000 after buying an additional 531,362 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Qiagen by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,879,089 shares of the company’s stock valued at $397,937,000 after buying an additional 77,119 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Qiagen in the 4th quarter valued at about $181,529,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:QGEN opened at $42.07 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. Qiagen has a 1 year low of $37.63 and a 1 year high of $49.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 117.14, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.82.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.05. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. The business had revenue of $483.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $465.66 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. UBS Group lowered their price target on Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Redburn Atlantic cut Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Baird R W cut Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.42.

Qiagen Company Profile

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.