Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• Qiagen shares jumped on heavy volume, with 2.94 million shares traded Thursday, about 25% above the prior session, and the stock last changing hands at $42.30 versus a previous close of $38.00.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed but leans cautious: the stock has a consensus Hold rating with a $43.15 average price target, while recent ratings ranged from Hold to Buy/Outperform.
• Qiagen raised its annual dividend to $0.35 from $0.26 and recently reported quarterly EPS of $0.54, matching estimates, though revenue came in slightly below consensus.

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) shares saw strong trading volume on Thursday . 2,939,119 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 25% from the previous session's volume of 2,345,403 shares.The stock last traded at $42.3040 and had previously closed at $38.00.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Robert W. Baird set a $43.00 price target on Qiagen and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price 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, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Qiagen from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $43.15.

Qiagen Price Performance

The company's 50-day simple moving average is $36.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 2.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.89, a P/E/G ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. The company had revenue of $492.32 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $496.15 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 19.16%.During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. This is a boost from Qiagen's previous annual dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a yield of 90.0%. Qiagen's dividend payout ratio is presently 18.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Qiagen by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,205,881 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,088,538,000 after acquiring an additional 264,921 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Qiagen by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,542,944 shares of the company's stock worth $433,871,000 after purchasing an additional 118,135 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,429,424 shares of the company's stock valued at $379,072,000 after purchasing an additional 906,589 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 7,907,801 shares of the company's stock valued at $355,614,000 after purchasing an additional 697,342 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 12.4% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 4,757,681 shares of the company's stock valued at $190,498,000 after purchasing an additional 524,959 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company's stock.

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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