Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Short Interest Down 16.9% in April

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,960,000 shares, a decrease of 16.9% from the March 31st total of 3,560,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,010,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days. Approximately 1.3% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the fourth quarter worth about $264,322,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Qiagen by 81.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,054,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $245,299,000 after buying an additional 2,709,030 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Qiagen by 8.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,066,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,045,211,000 after buying an additional 1,809,486 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 33,220.7% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,345,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,435,000 after buying an additional 1,341,450 shares during the period. Finally, Nuance Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 4th quarter worth about $47,479,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Stock Up 0.1 %

Qiagen stock traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $42.33. The stock had a trading volume of 2,113,233 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,220,508. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.69. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $34.74 and a fifty-two week high of $47.70. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a PE ratio of 27.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.62 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $459.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $453.91 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 17.37% and a return on equity of 12.99%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Qiagen from $61.86 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Qiagen from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $49.48 to $51.00 in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.69.

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.