Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) saw a significant decline in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,650,000 shares, a decline of 16.1% from the February 13th total of 3,160,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in Qiagen by 3.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,380,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,457,000 after acquiring an additional 90,181 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Qiagen by 5.0% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,426,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,001,000 after acquiring an additional 68,415 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd increased its position in Qiagen by 129.3% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 20,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $920,000 after acquiring an additional 11,385 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in Qiagen by 24.8% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 19,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,000 after acquiring an additional 3,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Qiagen by 36.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,604,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,096,000 after acquiring an additional 424,937 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:QGEN opened at $39.65 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $8.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 110.42, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 3.09. Qiagen has a 1 year low of $37.63 and a 1 year high of $49.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $41.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.39.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.01. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. Sell-side analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on QGEN shares. Robert W. Baird lowered Qiagen from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $52.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $46.67 target price (down from $48.61) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, January 6th. Baird R W downgraded Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $52.50 target price (up from $40.83) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qiagen presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.71.

Qiagen Company Profile

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.