Traders Buy Large Volume of Qiagen Call Options (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 20,658 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,182% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,611 call options.

Qiagen Trading Up 2.3%

NYSE QGEN opened at $48.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $10.25 billion, a PE ratio of 24.07, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.67. Qiagen has a 12 month low of $39.61 and a 12 month high of $57.81. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $49.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $49.39. The company has a current ratio of 3.90, a quick ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on QGEN shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the company from $52.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays set a $58.00 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Qiagen from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Qiagen currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of QGEN. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 1st quarter worth $239,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 13,144.4% in the second quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 1,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 1,183 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Qiagen by 26.6% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 425,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,439,000 after acquiring an additional 89,301 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in Qiagen by 2.9% in the second quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 7,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $369,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the period. Finally, Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in Qiagen by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 11,751 shares of the company’s stock worth $565,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.