Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $47.71.

A number of research firms recently commented on QGEN. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.67 price objective (down from $48.61) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $52.50 target price (up from $40.83) on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Baird R W lowered Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded Qiagen from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $52.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in Qiagen by 3.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,380,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,457,000 after acquiring an additional 90,181 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Qiagen by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,426,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $65,001,000 after purchasing an additional 68,415 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 129.3% during the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 20,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $920,000 after purchasing an additional 11,385 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 24.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 19,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,000 after purchasing an additional 3,878 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 36.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,604,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,096,000 after buying an additional 424,937 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Shares of QGEN stock opened at $39.90 on Friday. Qiagen has a 12-month low of $37.63 and a 12-month high of $49.30. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.72. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market cap of $8.85 billion, a PE ratio of 111.11, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.44.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.01. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. Analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Company Profile

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.