Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Makes New Investment in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 140,091 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,148,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of QGEN. Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its holdings in Qiagen by 107.7% in the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 74,567 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,916,000 after acquiring an additional 38,658 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in Qiagen during the 1st quarter worth $2,518,000. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft bought a new stake in Qiagen during the first quarter valued at about $1,368,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Qiagen during the second quarter valued at about $2,836,000. Finally, WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in Qiagen during the second quarter valued at about $1,423,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qiagen Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of QGEN stock opened at $50.10 on Friday. Qiagen N.V. has a 1 year low of $32.53 and a 1 year high of $57.81. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.03 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.63, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.02. Qiagen had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 14.70%. The firm had revenue of $547.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $538.61 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.61 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.44 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on QGEN. DZ Bank downgraded Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $40.00 price objective on Qiagen in a research report on Friday, August 7th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Qiagen in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $47.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $55.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Qiagen from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Friday, September 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qiagen presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.09.

Qiagen Profile

QIAGEN is a life sciences company that develops technologies used to prepare and analyze biological samples. Its products help researchers and clinicians extract and process DNA, RNA and proteins from samples such as blood, tissue and other biological materials. The company offers laboratory consumables, instruments and software for molecular diagnostics and life sciences research, as well as applications in pharmaceutical research and applied testing. Its portfolio includes sample-preparation kits, molecular testing assays and platforms for PCR, digital PCR and next-generation sequencing.