Short Interest in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Drops By 16.9%

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,960,000 shares, a drop of 16.9% from the March 31st total of 3,560,000 shares. Currently, 1.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,010,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Qiagen by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,335 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. lifted its position in shares of Qiagen by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 9,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $417,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in shares of Qiagen by 66.3% in the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 710 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 283 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 19.1% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $190,000 after acquiring an additional 385 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE:QGEN traded up $0.59 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $42.24. 953,718 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,187,453. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $34.74 and a fifty-two week high of $47.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.53, a PEG ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.41.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.55. Qiagen had a net margin of 17.37% and a return on equity of 12.99%. The business had revenue of $509.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $500.77 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on QGEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Qiagen from $61.86 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Qiagen from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $49.48 to $51.00 in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Qiagen has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.69.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN N.V. offers sample to insight solutions that transform biological materials into molecular insights worldwide. The company provides primary sample technology consumables, such as nucleic stabilization and purification kits for primary sample materials, manual and automated processing for genotyping, gene expression, and viral and bacterial analysis, as well as silica membranes and magnetic bead technologies; secondary sample technology consumables, including kits and components for purification of nucleic acids from secondary sample materials; and instruments for nucleic acid purification and accessories.