Qiagen Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Traders acquired 30,567 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 1,380% compared to the average volume of 2,065 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 16,363 shares of the company’s stock valued at $747,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Commerce Bank boosted its position in Qiagen by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 6,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 314 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in Qiagen by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,421 shares of the company’s stock worth $379,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in Qiagen by 7.1% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 5,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $256,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares during the period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Qiagen by 45.6% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,730 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 542 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on QGEN shares. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday. Berenberg Bank set a $45.50 target price on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Kepler Capital Markets set a $38.60 price target on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.93.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Shares of QGEN traded down $1.18 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $42.67. The stock had a trading volume of 1,563,867 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,450,218. 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $39.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.57. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $32.53 and a fifty-two week high of $57.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.90, a PEG ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.63.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $535.04 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $527.50 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 14.24%. The firm’s revenue was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. Qiagen has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.430- EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Qiagen will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

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.