Dnca Finance Acquires 39,063 Shares of Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Key Points

• Dnca Finance increased its stake in Qiagen by 7.5% in Q3, buying 39,063 shares to hold 558,481 shares (about 0.25% of Qiagen) worth $24.74M, making the stock roughly 1.7% of Dnca's portfolio and its 17th largest holding.
• Analysts' consensus rating for Qiagen is Hold with a $55.20 average target; five analysts rate Buy, seven Hold and one Sell.
• Qiagen beat quarter estimates with $0.62 EPS versus $0.61 expected and $540.4M revenue (up 3.6% YoY), while shares trade near their 52-week low around $40 and the company has a market cap of $8.57B.

Dnca Finance grew its stake in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN - Free Report) by 7.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 558,481 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 39,063 shares during the quarter. Qiagen comprises approximately 1.7% of Dnca Finance's holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Dnca Finance owned 0.25% of Qiagen worth $24,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in Qiagen by 0.4% in the third quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 57,359 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,563,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 0.5% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 51,780 shares of the company's stock worth $2,288,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 13.6% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 3,007 shares of the company's stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 361 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in shares of Qiagen by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 5,730 shares of the company's stock worth $256,000 after buying an additional 378 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Qiagen by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 9,672 shares of the company's stock worth $465,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group set a $52.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $53.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen in a report on Friday, February 6th. Barclays set a $58.00 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, December 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $55.20.

Qiagen Price Performance

Shares of QGEN opened at $40.59 on Friday. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.86. Qiagen N.V. has a 52-week low of $40.14 and a 52-week high of $57.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.57 billion, a PE ratio of 20.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.70.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.01. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 20.33%.The business had revenue of $540.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $528.53 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.61 EPS. Qiagen's revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Qiagen N.V. 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.

Want to see what other hedge funds are holding QGEN? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN - Free Report).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.