Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 8,189 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 460% compared to the typical volume of 1,463 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on QGEN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $53.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a report on Friday, February 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $55.20.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:QGEN traded down $0.42 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $48.61. The company had a trading volume of 396,461 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,839,972. The stock has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.67. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $49.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.49. The company has a current ratio of 3.90, a quick ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Qiagen has a 52-week low of $39.61 and a 52-week high of $57.81.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.01. Qiagen had a net margin of 20.33% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The business had revenue of $540.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $528.53 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qiagen will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of QGEN. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Qiagen during the 3rd quarter worth $36,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Qiagen by 1,383.3% during the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Qiagen during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. MAI Capital Management boosted its position in Qiagen by 998.9% during the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 978 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 889 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 279.9% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 851 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qiagen Company Profile

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.