Bessemer Group Inc. Sells 43,977 Shares of Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Bessemer Group Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 84.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,112 shares of the company’s stock after selling 43,977 shares during the quarter. Bessemer Group Inc.’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $324,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. United Services Automobile Association bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 1st quarter worth about $239,000. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 8,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $426,000 after acquiring an additional 3,799 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 123.7% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,006,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,350,000 after acquiring an additional 556,387 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Qiagen by 226.4% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after acquiring an additional 1,802 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new position in Qiagen in the second quarter worth about $3,639,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Qiagen stock opened at $41.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 3.21 and a quick ratio of 2.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.13 and a beta of 0.64. Qiagen N.V. has a 1-year low of $32.53 and a 1-year high of $57.81. The company’s 50-day moving average is $38.12 and its 200 day moving average is $42.14.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. The business 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 quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of Qiagen in a report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Qiagen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.34.

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.