Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Shares Bought by Nuance Investments LLC

Nuance Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) by 17.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,271,494 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 778,005 shares during the period. Qiagen makes up 6.6% of Nuance Investments LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Nuance Investments LLC’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $216,606,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake 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 boosted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,271,828 shares of the company’s stock valued at $316,463,000 after purchasing an additional 1,217,712 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter valued at $264,322,000. FIL Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 5,099,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $221,784,000 after purchasing an additional 399,965 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,481,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $151,526,000 after purchasing an additional 26,078 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QGEN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Qiagen from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qiagen presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.10.

Qiagen Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE QGEN opened at $45.57 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.39. Qiagen has a 12 month low of $34.74 and a 12 month high of $47.44. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $44.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 1.46.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $496.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $495.45 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 12.92%. The firm’s revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Qiagen will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Profile

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.