Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 3,060,000 shares, a drop of 18.0% from the December 15th total of 3,730,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 864,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.5 days. Approximately 1.4% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter valued at $241,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its position in Qiagen by 83.5% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,000 after purchasing an additional 712 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in Qiagen by 32.1% during the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 8,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 2,166 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Qiagen by 34.7% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 16,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 4,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Qiagen by 170.1% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 956 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on QGEN. Hsbc Global Res raised Qiagen to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. HSBC downgraded Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $49.00 target price for the company. in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $54.00 target price (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $48.00 target price (down previously from $50.00) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, January 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.50.

Qiagen Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of QGEN stock opened at $45.89 on Friday. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $39.03 and a fifty-two week high of $47.44. The stock has a market cap of $10.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 117.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.37. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.89, a current ratio of 2.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials.