Edgestream Partners L.P. Lowers Holdings in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Edgestream Partners L.P. reduced its position in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 47.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 92,571 shares of the company’s stock after selling 84,199 shares during the quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P.’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $3,707,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Qiagen by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,542,944 shares of the company’s stock valued at $433,871,000 after purchasing an additional 118,135 shares during the period. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft purchased a new stake in Qiagen in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,368,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Qiagen by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,205,881 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,088,538,000 after purchasing an additional 264,921 shares during the period. Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its position in Qiagen by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 98,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,440,000 after purchasing an additional 14,845 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp purchased a new position in shares of Qiagen during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,186,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QGEN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Berenberg Bank set a $45.50 target price on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.34.

Qiagen Price Performance

QGEN stock opened at $41.56 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $38.82 and a 200-day moving average of $41.88. Qiagen N.V. has a 12-month low of $32.53 and a 12-month high of $57.81. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market cap of $8.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70, a PEG ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.54. The business had revenue of $492.32 million for 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 quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.56 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 7th. This is a positive change from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. This represents a yield of 90.0%. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.32%.

Qiagen Profile

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.