Barings LLC Cuts Position in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Barings LLC cut its holdings in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 19.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 329,512 shares of the company’s stock after selling 77,747 shares during the period. Barings LLC’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $13,233,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension grew its position in Qiagen by 24.8% during the first quarter. Arbejdsmarkedets Tillaegspension now owns 636,918 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,502,000 after buying an additional 126,405 shares during the period. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in Qiagen in the first quarter valued at about $205,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of Qiagen during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $12,916,000. Waterfront Wealth Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,050,000. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 1st quarter worth approximately $373,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Shares of QGEN opened at $41.51 on Friday. Qiagen N.V. has a 52-week low of $32.53 and a 52-week high of $57.81. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.12 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 19.16%.The business had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 7th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is an increase from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. This represents a yield of 90.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 7th. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.32%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on QGEN. Citigroup reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Kepler Capital Markets set a $38.60 target price on Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Wall Street Zen lowered Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $43.00 price target on Qiagen and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.34.

Qiagen 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.