Investors Purchase High Volume of Qiagen Call Options (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 4,493 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 261% compared to the average volume of 1,246 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. United Services Automobile Association acquired a new position in Qiagen during the first quarter worth approximately $239,000. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 74.9% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 8,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $426,000 after purchasing an additional 3,799 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 123.7% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,006,025 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,350,000 after purchasing an additional 556,387 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Qiagen by 226.4% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $125,000 after buying an additional 1,802 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 2nd quarter valued at $3,639,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Qiagen Trading Up 12.5%

Shares of Qiagen stock traded up $4.75 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $42.75. 5,652,275 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,356,023. Qiagen has a 52-week low of $32.53 and a 52-week high of $57.81. The company has a fifty day moving average of $36.27 and a 200-day moving average of $42.65. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.86 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 19.16%.The business had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $496.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a dividend yield of 90.0%. This is an increase from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.32%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on QGEN shares. Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Qiagen from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 price target (down from $46.00) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qiagen presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.15.

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.