Sona Asset Management US LLC Invests $8.89 Million in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Sona Asset Management US LLC purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 222,060 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,891,000. Sona Asset Management US LLC owned about 0.11% of Qiagen as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of Qiagen by 10.1% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 3,164,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $143,018,000 after purchasing an additional 290,449 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,542,944 shares of the company’s stock worth $433,871,000 after purchasing an additional 118,135 shares during the last quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the first quarter worth about $1,368,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,205,881 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,088,538,000 after purchasing an additional 264,921 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its stake in Qiagen by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 98,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,440,000 after buying an additional 14,845 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on QGEN. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Berenberg Bank set a $45.50 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Zacks Research raised shares of Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 price target on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.34.

Qiagen Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE QGEN opened at $41.38 on Monday. Qiagen N.V. has a 52 week low of $32.53 and a 52 week high of $57.81. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $38.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.09. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $8.53 billion, a PE ratio of 21.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a dividend yield of 90.0%. This is a boost from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.32%.

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.