Qiagen N.V. $QGEN is Nuance Investments LLC’s 9th Largest Position

Nuance Investments LLC increased its stake in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 49.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 803,588 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 264,767 shares during the period. Qiagen comprises approximately 4.0% of Nuance Investments LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Nuance Investments LLC’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $36,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Qiagen by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,205,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,088,538,000 after buying an additional 264,921 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Qiagen by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,542,944 shares of the company’s stock valued at $433,871,000 after buying an additional 118,135 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in Qiagen by 4.4% during the third quarter. Amundi now owns 4,290,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $201,471,000 after buying an additional 181,509 shares during the period. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in Qiagen during the third quarter valued at about $179,450,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Qiagen during the fourth quarter valued at about $166,500,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, May 18th. UBS Group set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.98.

Qiagen Price Performance

Shares of NYSE QGEN opened at $36.69 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.21. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.33 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.40. Qiagen N.V. has a fifty-two week low of $32.53 and a fifty-two week high of $57.81.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.16% and a return on equity of 14.40%. The company had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $496.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.56 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is a positive change from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a dividend yield of 104.0%. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.61%.

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.