Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sees Strong Trading Volume

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) saw unusually-high trading volume on Wednesday . Approximately 519,599 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 56% from the previous session’s volume of 1,182,376 shares.The stock last traded at $45.91 and had previously closed at $45.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Qiagen Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $10.40 billion, a PE ratio of 30.60, a P/E/G ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.77, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company’s 50 day moving average is $44.87 and its 200-day moving average is $43.47.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $496.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $495.45 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 3.75% and a return on equity of 12.92%. The company’s revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Qiagen will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of QGEN. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 45.1% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 11,903 shares of the company’s stock valued at $517,000 after buying an additional 3,698 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 1,423.8% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 323,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,055,000 after buying an additional 302,387 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 53.1% in the 4th quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 40,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,755,000 after buying an additional 14,018 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 211,698 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,203,000 after buying an additional 1,370 shares during the period. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Qiagen in the 4th quarter valued at about $211,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Company Profile

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.