Qiagen Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 30,191 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 2,518% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,153 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a report on Thursday, April 30th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Berenberg Bank set a $45.50 price target on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, May 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Qiagen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.34.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

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

Qiagen Trading Down 0.8%

QGEN stock traded down $0.33 on Monday, reaching $41.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,651,311 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,442,845. The firm has a market cap of $8.46 billion, a PE ratio of 21.44, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.12 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.09. Qiagen has a 12-month low of $32.53 and a 12-month high of $57.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.21.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.16% and a return on equity of 14.40%. The business had revenue of $492.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $496.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 90.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 7th. This is a positive change from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. 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.