Brokerages Set Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Price Target at $50.95

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nine research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $50.95.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on QGEN shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Qiagen from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $49.48 to $51.00 in a report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Qiagen from $61.86 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Qiagen from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 1st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in QGEN. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its stake in Qiagen by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,335 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Xponance Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 9,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $417,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 66.3% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 710 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 19.1% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,236 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in Qiagen by 9.0% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,686 shares of the company’s stock worth $190,000 after purchasing an additional 385 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qiagen Stock Performance

Shares of QGEN stock opened at $42.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Qiagen has a 12-month low of $34.74 and a 12-month high of $47.70. The company has a market cap of $9.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.80.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 29th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.44 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $459.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.91 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 17.38% and a return on equity of 12.59%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.09 EPS for the current 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.