Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sets New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $39.85 and last traded at $39.8690, with a volume of 123542 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $40.65.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on QGEN. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $54.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 13th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Friday, February 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $53.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.20.

Qiagen Stock Down 1.8%

The company has a quick ratio of 3.31, a current ratio of 3.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.81, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.70.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 6th. 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 return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 20.33%.The company had revenue of $540.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $528.53 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.61 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners acquired a new position in Qiagen in the third quarter worth $179,450,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter valued at $166,500,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the third quarter valued at $58,079,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,429,424 shares of the company’s stock valued at $379,072,000 after buying an additional 906,589 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 9.7% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 7,907,801 shares of the company’s stock valued at $355,614,000 after buying an additional 697,342 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Qiagen

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.