Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Holdings Increased by Forsta AP Fonden

Forsta AP Fonden increased its stake in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) by 48.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 28,732 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,326 shares during the period. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $1,181,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of QGEN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Qiagen by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,815,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $382,856,000 after purchasing an additional 83,371 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in Qiagen by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,481,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $151,526,000 after buying an additional 26,078 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 1,211.4% in the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 47,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,050,000 after buying an additional 43,612 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Qiagen by 49.0% during the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,196,476 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,963,000 after acquiring an additional 393,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 124.4% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 75,529 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,247,000 after acquiring an additional 41,868 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qiagen Stock Performance

QGEN stock opened at $46.57 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.40. Qiagen has a 52 week low of $34.74 and a 52 week high of $47.44. The stock has a market cap of $10.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 1.77.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.03. Qiagen had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 12.92%. The business had revenue of $496.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $495.45 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. Qiagen’s revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Qiagen will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on QGEN shares. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Qiagen from $49.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Wolfe Research raised shares of Qiagen from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Qiagen from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Qiagen has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.10.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN N.V. offers sample to insight solutions that transform biological materials into molecular insights worldwide. The company provides primary sample technology consumables, such as nucleic stabilization and purification kits for primary sample materials, manual and automated processing for genotyping, gene expression, and viral and bacterial analysis, as well as silica membranes and magnetic bead technologies; secondary sample technology consumables, including kits and components for purification of nucleic acids from secondary sample materials; and instruments for nucleic acid purification and accessories.