Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Buys 27,518 Shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Free Report) by 23.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 142,794 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 27,518 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 0.06% of Qiagen worth $6,359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of QGEN. Groupama Asset Managment increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 8,074.0% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Qiagen during the 4th quarter valued at $181,529,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted 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 acquiring an additional 2,202,040 shares in the last quarter. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $53,991,000. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Qiagen by 170.6% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,849,004 shares of the company's stock worth $84,259,000 after acquiring an additional 1,165,594 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QGEN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of Qiagen from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Baird R W downgraded Qiagen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $48.42.

Qiagen Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Qiagen stock traded up $0.37 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $42.54. 1,723,688 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,123,877. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $40.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.73. Qiagen has a twelve month low of $37.63 and a twelve month high of $49.30. The stock has a market cap of $9.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 118.45, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a current ratio of 3.61.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.06. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. Equities research analysts predict that Qiagen will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Qiagen

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.