Norges Bank Makes New Investment in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 6,077,482 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $264,322,000. Norges Bank owned approximately 2.75% of Qiagen as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its stake in Qiagen by 33.5% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 6,027 shares of the company’s stock valued at $262,000 after purchasing an additional 1,513 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Qiagen by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,066,569 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,045,211,000 after acquiring an additional 1,809,486 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC bought a new stake in Qiagen during the fourth quarter worth approximately $47,479,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,823,000. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC lifted its position in Qiagen by 13.4% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 7,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 933 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qiagen Trading Down 1.0 %

QGEN opened at $45.02 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market cap of $10.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.19, a PEG ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.42. Qiagen has a 12 month low of $34.74 and a 12 month high of $47.70. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $42.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.28.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Qiagen from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $49.48 to $51.00 in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Qiagen from $55.00 to $45.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price target on Qiagen from $61.86 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Qiagen presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.95.

Qiagen 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.