Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Cuts Stake in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 54.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,920 shares of the company’s stock after selling 23,463 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $896,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Qiagen during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $179,450,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $58,079,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,082,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Qiagen by 123.7% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,006,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,350,000 after purchasing an additional 556,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in Qiagen by 53.7% during the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,529,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,028,000 after purchasing an additional 534,527 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on QGEN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $43.00 price target on Qiagen and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. UBS Group set a $52.00 price objective on Qiagen in a report on Monday, February 9th. Barclays set a $38.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.38.

Qiagen Trading Down 2.9%

NYSE:QGEN opened at $32.74 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $39.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.86. Qiagen N.V. has a 1 year low of $32.53 and a 1 year high of $57.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 3.31.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. The firm had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.15 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 19.16%.During the same period last year, the company earned $0.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a yield of 104.0%. This is an increase from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio is 13.61%.

About Qiagen

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.