BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments Acquires Shares of 12,644 Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments acquired a new stake in shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 12,644 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $564,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in shares of Qiagen by 8,074.0% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 31,817,740 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,416,844,000 after acquiring an additional 32,216,761 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 4th quarter worth $181,529,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 25,319,332 shares of the company's stock worth $1,127,470,000 after purchasing an additional 2,202,040 shares during the last quarter. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter worth $53,991,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Qiagen by 170.6% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,849,004 shares of the company's stock valued at $84,259,000 after buying an additional 1,165,594 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on QGEN shares. UBS Group decreased their target price on Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of Qiagen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. Baird R W lowered shares of Qiagen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic downgraded Qiagen from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Qiagen currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $48.42.

Qiagen Stock Performance

NYSE QGEN traded down $0.29 on Friday, hitting $41.87. 1,823,210 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,134,961. The business's 50 day moving average price is $40.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.75. Qiagen has a 52-week low of $37.63 and a 52-week high of $49.30. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The company has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $483.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $465.66 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. The firm's revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Qiagen Profile

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials.