Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Hits New 52-Week Low – Time to Sell?

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $32.53 and last traded at $32.7360, with a volume of 4032489 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $33.70.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on QGEN shares. Weiss Ratings cut Qiagen from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group set a $52.00 target price on Qiagen in a research note on Monday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Wall Street Zen cut Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.38.

Qiagen Trading Down 0.9%

The company has a market capitalization of $6.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.64. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.64. The company has a quick ratio of 3.31, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. The company had revenue of $492.32 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.15 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 19.16%.During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The company 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. This represents a dividend yield of 104.0%. This is a positive change from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 7th. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.61%.

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Sona Asset Management US LLC bought a new stake in Qiagen during the first quarter worth about $8,891,000. Sculptor Capital LP raised its holdings in Qiagen by 182.7% during the first quarter. Sculptor Capital LP now owns 124,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,970,000 after acquiring an additional 274,116 shares in the last quarter. Troluce Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Qiagen during the first quarter worth about $14,514,000. Gabelli Funds LLC bought a new stake in Qiagen during the first quarter worth about $663,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its holdings in Qiagen by 2.6% during the first quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 254,524 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,165,000 after acquiring an additional 6,460 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Company Profile

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.