Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $54.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 33.02% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 price target on shares of Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Qiagen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 21st. Barclays set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.20.

Qiagen Stock Down 1.3%

QGEN opened at $40.59 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.57 billion, a PE ratio of 20.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.84. The company has a quick ratio of 3.31, a current ratio of 3.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Qiagen has a 52 week low of $40.14 and a 52 week high of $57.81.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.01. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 20.33%.The firm had revenue of $540.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $528.53 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.61 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in Qiagen during the 1st quarter valued at $239,000. Savant Capital LLC purchased a new position in Qiagen during the second quarter worth $383,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 260.1% in the 2nd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,102 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 796 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in Qiagen during the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,932,000. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden raised its position in Qiagen by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 32,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 3,032 shares during the period. 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.