Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the fourteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have assigned a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $43.3417.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Kepler Capital Markets set a $38.60 target price on Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Zacks Research raised Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 29th.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Shares of QGEN stock opened at $41.19 on Monday. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $32.53 and a fifty-two week high of $57.81. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $37.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 2.57. The firm has a market cap of $8.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.51, a PEG ratio of 4.14 and a beta of 0.64.

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

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is an increase from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. This represents a dividend yield of 90.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 7th. Qiagen’s payout ratio is currently 18.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of QGEN. Canvas Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Qiagen by 90.2% during the 2nd quarter. Canvas Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 30,119 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,178,000 after purchasing an additional 14,281 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,909,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 70.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 1,455 shares in the last quarter. Hilltop National Bank acquired a new stake in Qiagen during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, Groupama Asset Managment bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the first quarter worth $500,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.