Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 118,135 Shares of Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Key Points

• Vanguard Group boosted its stake in Qiagen by 1.3%, buying 118,135 shares to hold 9,542,944 shares (about 4.52% of the company) valued at roughly $433.9 million in its latest 13F filing.
• Qiagen slightly beat Q4 expectations with $0.62 EPS (vs. $0.61) and $540.4M revenue (up 3.6% year-over-year), while analysts are mixed—average rating "Moderate Buy" with an average target of $47.09.

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN - Free Report) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,542,944 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 118,135 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 4.52% of Qiagen worth $433,871,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 0.4% in the third quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 57,359 shares of the company's stock worth $2,563,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in Qiagen by 23.2% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,358 shares of the company's stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its holdings in Qiagen by 0.5% during the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 51,780 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,288,000 after buying an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its position in Qiagen by 13.6% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 3,007 shares of the company's stock worth $134,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares during the period. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in Qiagen by 7.1% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 5,730 shares of the company's stock worth $256,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qiagen Trading Up 0.1%

QGEN stock opened at $33.98 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 3.90 and a quick ratio of 3.31. Qiagen N.V. has a 1-year low of $33.17 and a 1-year high of $57.81. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.61. The company has a market capitalization of $7.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.85, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.01. Qiagen had a net margin of 20.33% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The firm had revenue of $540.42 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $528.53 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.61 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on QGEN. Wall Street Zen cut Qiagen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, March 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Barclays set a $38.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $59.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a report on Thursday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $47.09.

Qiagen Company Profile

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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