SG Americas Securities LLC Takes Position in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 96,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,878,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its stake in Qiagen by 1,544.8% during the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 6,168 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,000 after purchasing an additional 5,793 shares during the period. MidFirst Bank acquired a new position in Qiagen in the fourth quarter valued at $154,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 7,475 shares of the company’s stock valued at $336,000 after buying an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter valued at about $494,000. Finally, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec boosted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 52.5% during the fourth quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 932,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,539,000 after buying an additional 320,850 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on QGEN shares. Zacks Research raised Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Robert W. Baird set a $43.00 target price on Qiagen and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 price target (down from $46.00) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.15.

Qiagen Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:QGEN opened at $39.73 on Tuesday. Qiagen N.V. has a fifty-two week low of $32.53 and a fifty-two week high of $57.81. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.07. The company has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.75, a PEG ratio of 3.93 and a beta of 0.66.

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

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a dividend yield of 104.0%. This is an increase from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. Qiagen’s 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.