Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a report published on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

QGEN has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $52.00 to $54.00 in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Friday, February 6th. UBS Group set a $52.00 price target on Qiagen in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $53.00 price target on Qiagen in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Qiagen from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.20.

Qiagen Stock Down 4.3%

QGEN stock opened at $41.15 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 3.90 and a quick ratio of 3.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.41, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.70. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $49.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.99. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $40.14 and a fifty-two week high of $57.81.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $528.53 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. Qiagen’s quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in shares of Qiagen by 1,544.8% during the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 6,168 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 5,793 shares in the last quarter. MidFirst Bank acquired a new position in Qiagen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $154,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its position in Qiagen by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 7,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares in the last quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC bought a new stake in Qiagen during the fourth quarter worth $494,000. Finally, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec lifted its stake in Qiagen by 52.5% during the fourth quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 932,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,539,000 after purchasing an additional 320,850 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.