Groupe la Francaise Sells 69,491 Shares of Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Groupe la Francaise reduced its position in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 48.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 75,200 shares of the company’s stock after selling 69,491 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $3,606,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of QGEN. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 3,030.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,470,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,501,000 after purchasing an additional 4,327,934 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Qiagen in the second quarter valued at about $158,728,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Qiagen by 12.2% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,438,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $972,191,000 after acquiring an additional 2,656,136 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Qiagen by 57.5% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 4,491,131 shares of the company’s stock valued at $180,319,000 after acquiring an additional 1,639,621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Qiagen during the first quarter worth about $44,078,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Barclays set a $53.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Thursday, August 7th. UBS Group increased their target price on Qiagen from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.69.

Qiagen Stock Performance

NYSE QGEN opened at $46.80 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.43, a PEG ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.68. Qiagen N.V. has a twelve month low of $37.63 and a twelve month high of $51.88. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $532.58 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $525.68 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 19.58%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.57 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials.