Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Qiagen Put Options (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 8,189 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 460% compared to the average daily volume of 1,463 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH purchased a new stake in Qiagen in the 3rd quarter worth about $4,218,000. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the third quarter worth approximately $1,032,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,197,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Qiagen during the 3rd quarter valued at $3,677,000. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR grew its position in Qiagen by 102.8% in the 3rd quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR now owns 68,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,078,000 after acquiring an additional 34,912 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qiagen Stock Performance

QGEN opened at $48.36 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.98, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67. Qiagen has a 1-year low of $39.61 and a 1-year high of $57.81. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 3.90 and a quick ratio of 3.31.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on QGEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 target price on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $53.00 price target on Qiagen 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 report on Friday, February 6th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price target for the company from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $55.20.

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.