Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Shares Sold by Korea Investment CORP

Korea Investment CORP decreased its holdings in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) by 11.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 341,524 shares of the company’s stock after selling 45,038 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP owned 0.15% of Qiagen worth $15,551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its position in Qiagen by 9.0% in the first quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 5,621 shares of the company’s stock worth $258,000 after buying an additional 465 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp acquired a new position in Qiagen in the first quarter worth approximately $16,512,000. Pitcairn Co. grew its position in Qiagen by 4.4% in the first quarter. Pitcairn Co. now owns 6,988 shares of the company’s stock worth $321,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Qtron Investments LLC acquired a new position in Qiagen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $536,000. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Qiagen in the first quarter worth approximately $3,445,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on QGEN shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Qiagen from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Wednesday, August 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.20.

Qiagen Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:QGEN opened at $44.61 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $45.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.87 and a beta of 0.37. Qiagen has a 12-month low of $40.38 and a 12-month high of $51.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 8th. The company reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $497.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $492.21 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 17.04% and a return on equity of 13.72%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.51 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.