Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) Short Interest Up 20.0% in February

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of February. As of February 13th, there was short interest totaling 7,184,231 shares, a growth of 20.0% from the January 29th total of 5,988,425 shares. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 2,567,910 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days. Based on an average trading volume of 2,567,910 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days. Approximately 3.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays set a $58.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, UBS Group set a $52.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, February 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qiagen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.20.

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Partners acquired a new position in shares of Qiagen during the third quarter valued at about $179,450,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the 4th quarter worth $166,500,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the third quarter valued at $58,079,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake 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 worth $379,072,000 after purchasing an additional 906,589 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in shares of Qiagen by 9.7% during 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. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:QGEN traded down $0.45 during trading on Thursday, reaching $46.43. The stock had a trading volume of 1,244,482 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,612,635. Qiagen has a 52 week low of $40.14 and a 52 week high of $57.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 3.31 and a current ratio of 3.90. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $49.98 and its 200 day moving average is $49.27. The stock has a market cap of $9.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.70.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $540.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $528.53 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 20.33% and a return on equity of 14.56%. Qiagen’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.