Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $50.95.

A number of research firms recently commented on QGEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Qiagen from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 report on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Qiagen from $61.86 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th.

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in Qiagen by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,066,569 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,045,211,000 after acquiring an additional 1,809,486 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Qiagen by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,815,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $382,856,000 after purchasing an additional 83,371 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,271,828 shares of the company’s stock valued at $316,463,000 after buying an additional 1,217,712 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $264,322,000. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,099,140 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,784,000 after buying an additional 399,965 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qiagen Price Performance

Qiagen stock opened at $42.95 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $42.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.83. Qiagen has a 1-year low of $34.74 and a 1-year high of $47.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $459.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.91 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 17.38% and a return on equity of 12.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Qiagen will post 2.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.