Troluce Capital Advisors LLC Purchases Shares of 362,500 Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Troluce Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 362,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,514,000. Qiagen comprises 0.9% of Troluce Capital Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Troluce Capital Advisors LLC owned about 0.18% of Qiagen as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Gabelli Funds LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the first quarter worth $663,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its position in Qiagen by 2.6% during the first quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 254,524 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,165,000 after buying an additional 6,460 shares during the period. Capula Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Qiagen in the 1st quarter worth about $1,114,000. State of Wyoming lifted its stake in Qiagen by 38.3% in the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 4,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,281 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft acquired a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the first quarter worth approximately $1,368,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on QGEN. Berenberg Bank set a $45.50 target price on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Citigroup restated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, May 18th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Qiagen from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.34.

Qiagen Stock Performance

NYSE QGEN opened at $41.38 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $38.12 and a 200-day moving average of $42.09. Qiagen N.V. has a 52-week low of $32.53 and a 52-week high of $57.81. The stock has a market cap of $8.53 billion, a PE ratio of 21.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.54. The business had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $496.15 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.16% and a return on equity of 14.40%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

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

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.