Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Qiagen from $55.40 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group set a $52.00 target price on Qiagen in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Qiagen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.20.

Qiagen Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of QGEN opened at $48.62 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $49.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.43. The company has a current ratio of 3.90, a quick ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.67. Qiagen has a 1-year low of $39.61 and a 1-year high of $57.81.

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

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QGEN. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 1,383.3% during the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 830 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Qiagen in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. MAI Capital Management raised its holdings in Qiagen by 998.9% in the 2nd quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 978 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 889 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in Qiagen by 279.9% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.