Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) said it closed 2025 with fourth-quarter results that came in above its outlook, while highlighting growth across key product lines and progress on profitability and cash generation amid what executives repeatedly described as a challenging and cautious macro environment for life science funding and capital spending.
Fourth-quarter and full-year results came in above outlook
For the fourth quarter of 2025, QIAGEN reported net sales of $540 million, up 1% at constant exchange rates (CER) and above its outlook for flat sales versus the prior-year period. Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) were $0.62 at CER, ahead of management’s outlook of about $0.60 at CER.
Growth pillars reached $1.49 billion and remain central to 2028 targets
CEO Thierry Bernard said QIAGEN’s “growth pillars” — Sample Technologies, QuantiFERON, QIAstat-Dx, QIAcuity and QIAGEN Digital Insights (QDI) — delivered combined sales of $1.49 billion at CER in 2025, up 8% at CER. Management said the trajectory keeps the company on track for at least $2 billion in combined growth-pillar sales by 2028.
Key operational milestones cited on the call included:
- Sample Technologies: Sales rose 5% at CER in the fourth quarter and 2% for the full year. Management pointed to demand for automated consumables and said QIAGEN completed the Parse Biosciences acquisition in December, expanding into single-cell analysis. The cumulative install base was cited at around 31,400 placements.
- QuantiFERON: Sales increased 5% at CER in the fourth quarter and 10% for the year. Bernard emphasized conversion from the skin test and described latent TB testing as “large and still under-penetrated.”
- QIAstat-Dx: Sales grew 15% at CER in the fourth quarter and 24% for the year, supported by menu expansion and consumables growth. The cumulative install base exceeded 5,200 instruments.
- QIAcuity (digital PCR): Management reported double-digit consumables growth and said cumulative placements exceeded 3,200 systems since launch. Bernard said instrument placements have been constrained by sluggish research and academic capital spending, but noted the company still placed more than 500 instruments in 2025 and more than 100 in the fourth quarter.
- QIAGEN Digital Insights: The bioinformatics unit delivered growth in 2025, which management attributed to demand across research and clinical customers and the integration of Genoox to strengthen clinical interpretation.
Profitability expanded despite tariffs and currency headwinds
For 2025, QIAGEN’s adjusted operating income margin increased 80 basis points to 29.5%. Sackers said the company faced about 120 basis points of combined headwinds from tariffs and adverse currency movements, and that excluding those external pressures the margin would have expanded by roughly 200 basis points — above the company’s initial target for at least 150 basis points of improvement.
During Q&A, management reiterated it expects continued margin improvement over time and expressed confidence it can exceed its longer-term 2028 margin target of at least 31%, while noting it is reviewing the target and plans to provide an update.
Cash flow, capital deployment, and shareholder returns
QIAGEN generated operating cash flow of $654 million in 2025 compared with $674 million in 2024, reflecting what Sackers described as strong earnings generation, partially offset by about $54 million of cash payments tied to efficiency initiatives. Free cash flow was $453 million, with the company citing higher capital expenditures primarily related to IT investments, including a SAP system upgrade and broader ERP rollout.
Management emphasized ongoing capital returns, saying QIAGEN has returned more than $1.1 billion to shareholders since 2024 and introduced an annual dividend. Sackers noted that in January 2026 the company returned $500 million through a synthetic share repurchase. On a pro forma basis, net leverage was about 1.3x net debt to adjusted EBITDA in January 2026.
2026 outlook: at least 5% sales growth at CER, EPS at least $2.50
For 2026, QIAGEN initiated an outlook for at least 5% net sales growth at CER and adjusted EPS of at least $2.50 at CER. For the first quarter of 2026, the company expects sales growth of at least 1% at CER versus $483 million in the first quarter of 2025 and adjusted EPS of at least $0.54 at CER versus $0.55 a year earlier.
Management attributed the slower first-quarter growth profile versus the full-year target to temporary factors, including:
- A year-over-year headwind of about $10 million from the discontinuation of NeuMoDx and Dialunox (also affecting the second quarter of 2026).
- Continued cautious life science customer spending trends, estimated at about $10 million of impact in the first quarter.
- A difficult comparison for QuantiFERON due to tender activity in the Middle East and Latin America in early 2025; QIAGEN expects low single-digit CER growth for QuantiFERON in the first quarter of 2026.
On margins, QIAGEN expects its adjusted operating income margin to remain around 29.5% in 2026, with efficiency gains and growth expected to offset roughly 160 basis points of headwinds from the Parse acquisition, adverse currency movements, and tariffs. The company said currency is expected to be a tailwind of about 1 percentage point on sales for the full year, with a neutral effect on adjusted EPS.
During Q&A, executives also addressed other topics, including industry consolidation rumors (saying the company does not comment on rumors but is open to discussions that create shareholder value), a CEO succession search described as ongoing and progressing, and China, where management reiterated exposure is about 4% of 2025 sales and said it expects China to range from low single-digit growth to negative to, at best, flat.
About Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)
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.
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