Moors & Cabot Inc. Acquires 154,851 Shares of Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Key Points

• Moors & Cabot raised its stake in Qiagen by 78.2% in Q3, buying 154,851 shares to hold 352,809 shares (about 0.16% of Qiagen) valued at roughly $15.76 million, making QGEN its 29th largest position.
• Other large institutions also increased or initiated positions — including Vanguard, Amundi, Boston Partners, Norges Bank and Allspring — and institutional investors now own about 70% of Qiagen.
• Qiagen has a market cap of $8.64 billion and a P/E of 20.29, recently reported a slight quarterly beat (Q: $0.62 EPS vs $0.61 est.; revenue $540.4M) and carries an average analyst rating of "Hold" with a $55.20 target.

Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its stake in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN - Free Report) by 78.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 352,809 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 154,851 shares during the quarter. Qiagen comprises approximately 0.7% of Moors & Cabot Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest position. Moors & Cabot Inc. owned 0.16% of Qiagen worth $15,764,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in QGEN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Qiagen by 1.9% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,424,809 shares of the company's stock valued at $420,401,000 after buying an additional 172,062 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its stake in shares of Qiagen by 4.4% in the third quarter. Amundi now owns 4,290,273 shares of the company's stock worth $201,471,000 after acquiring an additional 181,509 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Qiagen during the third quarter valued at $179,450,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen in the 2nd quarter worth about $158,728,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Qiagen by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,874,356 shares of the company's stock worth $133,140,000 after purchasing an additional 141,393 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

Qiagen Price Performance

NYSE QGEN opened at $40.91 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.70. Qiagen N.V. has a 1-year low of $40.14 and a 1-year high of $57.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 3.90 and a quick ratio of 3.31. The business's fifty day moving average price is $49.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.78.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $540.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $528.53 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 20.33%.Qiagen's revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.61 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on QGEN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Qiagen from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Qiagen from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Qiagen from $55.40 to $55.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $59.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 price target on Qiagen and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $55.20.

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.

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