Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup cut shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $57.89 to $52.63 in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $57.89 target price (up from $55.79) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.84.

Qiagen Trading Down 2.2%

QGEN opened at $47.25 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.98 billion, a PE ratio of 24.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.66. Qiagen has a one year low of $39.61 and a one year high of $54.61. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $48.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a current ratio of 2.60.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.03. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 19.58%.The company had revenue of $532.58 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $525.68 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Qiagen by 1.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,424,809 shares of the company’s stock valued at $420,401,000 after buying an additional 172,062 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 4,290,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $201,471,000 after acquiring an additional 181,509 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 3rd quarter worth about $179,450,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 2nd quarter worth about $158,728,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Qiagen by 5.2% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,874,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,140,000 after purchasing an additional 141,393 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Company Profile

Qiagen NV (NYSE: QGEN) is a global provider of sample and assay technologies designed to enable molecular testing in the fields of molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academic research and pharmaceutical development. The company’s solutions span the full workflow of nucleic acid and protein analysis, offering customers standardized kits, instruments and software tools that streamline the preparation, detection and quantification of DNA, RNA and proteins.

The company’s product portfolio includes nucleic acid extraction and purification systems, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reagents and instrumentation, digital PCR platforms, next-generation sequencing (NGS) library‐preparation kits and proteomics solutions.