Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – What’s Next?

Shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) saw unusually-strong trading volume on Wednesday . Approximately 3,534,944 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 29% from the previous session’s volume of 2,735,731 shares.The stock last traded at $54.6950 and had previously closed at $55.45.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QGEN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Citigroup cut shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $57.89 to $52.63 in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 10th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $57.89 price target (up previously from $55.79) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, December 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.84.

Qiagen Trading Down 0.6%

The stock has a market capitalization of $11.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.66. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $48.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $49.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.03. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.58% and a return on equity of 14.80%. The company had revenue of $532.58 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $525.68 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 1.8% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 11,751 shares of the company’s stock valued at $565,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc lifted its holdings in Qiagen by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 7,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $369,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the period. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 9.4% during the second quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 2,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 221 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 3.7% during the second quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 6,257 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 0.4% during the third quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 57,359 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,563,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.