Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Buys Shares of 34,485 Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Key Points

• Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd opened a new position in Qiagen during the first quarter, buying 34,485 shares worth about $1.38 million.
• Analyst sentiment on Qiagen is mixed but leans cautious: the stock has a consensus rating of Hold with an average price target of $43.15.
• Qiagen reported quarterly earnings of $0.54 per share, matching estimates, and recently raised its annual dividend to $0.35 per share from $0.26.

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 34,485 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,381,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 1st quarter valued at $194,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Qiagen by 126.2% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,397 shares of the company's stock worth $496,000 after purchasing an additional 6,916 shares in the last quarter. Cannon Global Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Qiagen in the 1st quarter worth about $1,377,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Qiagen in the 1st quarter worth about $709,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Qiagen during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,878,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on QGEN. Kepler Capital Markets set a $38.60 price target on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating and set a $40.00 price objective (down from $46.00) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qiagen from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Citigroup restated 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 issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $43.15.

Qiagen Price Performance

QGEN stock traded down $0.47 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $41.52. The company had a trading volume of 3,565,122 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,901,811. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $36.59 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.60. The company has a market capitalization of $8.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.68, a P/E/G ratio of 4.19 and a beta of 0.64. Qiagen N.V. has a 1 year low of $32.53 and a 1 year high of $57.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 2.57.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.16% and a return on equity of 14.40%. The firm had revenue of $492.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $496.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.56 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a yield of 90.0%. This is an increase from Qiagen's previous annual dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 7th. Qiagen's dividend payout ratio is presently 18.32%.

Qiagen 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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