Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Sells 122,433 Shares of Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lowered its stake in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 14.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 738,371 shares of the company’s stock after selling 122,433 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned 0.36% of Qiagen worth $29,559,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Manchester Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen in the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in Qiagen by 279.9% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,155 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Qiagen by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,358 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC bought a new position in shares of Qiagen during the third quarter valued at approximately $64,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Qiagen from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $43.00 price target on Qiagen and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 price target on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, May 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.15.

Qiagen Stock Performance

QGEN opened at $39.15 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.01. Qiagen N.V. has a 1 year low of $32.53 and a 1 year high of $57.81. The stock has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.97 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 2.57.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

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