Bessemer Group Inc. Sells 43,977 Shares of Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Bessemer Group Inc. decreased its stake in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 84.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,112 shares of the company’s stock after selling 43,977 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in QGEN. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen during the 1st quarter valued at about $239,000. Prudential Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Qiagen by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 8,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $426,000 after acquiring an additional 3,799 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Qiagen by 123.7% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,006,025 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,350,000 after acquiring an additional 556,387 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Qiagen by 226.4% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,802 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the second quarter worth $3,639,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on QGEN shares. Zacks Research raised shares of Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Robert W. Baird set a $43.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Berenberg Bank set a $45.50 price target on Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.34.

Qiagen Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of QGEN stock opened at $41.38 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $8.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.61, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.64. Qiagen N.V. has a 52 week low of $32.53 and a 52 week high of $57.81. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.14.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 19.16%.The firm had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a yield of 90.0%. This is a boost from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.32%.

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.