Qiagen Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors acquired 30,567 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 1,380% compared to the typical volume of 2,065 call options.

Qiagen Stock Down 2.7%

Shares of NYSE QGEN traded down $1.18 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $42.67. 1,563,867 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,450,218. Qiagen has a 1 year low of $32.53 and a 1 year high of $57.81. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $39.58 and a 200 day moving average of $41.57. The stock has a market cap of $8.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.90, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 2.57, a current ratio of 3.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.02. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 14.24%. The company had revenue of $535.04 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $527.50 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. Qiagen’s revenue was up .2% compared to the same quarter last year. Qiagen has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.430- EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

QGEN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $40.00 price target on Qiagen in a report on Friday. Zacks Research raised Qiagen from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley raised Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Qiagen from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qiagen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.93.

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Qiagen by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,542,944 shares of the company’s stock valued at $433,871,000 after purchasing an additional 118,135 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,429,424 shares of the company’s stock worth $379,072,000 after buying an additional 906,589 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 7,907,801 shares of the company’s stock valued at $355,614,000 after buying an additional 697,342 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 12.4% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 4,757,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $190,498,000 after buying an additional 524,959 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners acquired a new position in shares of Qiagen in the 3rd quarter valued at $179,450,000. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.