Barclays Initiates Coverage on Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Stock analysts at Barclays began coverage on shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm set an “overweight” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Barclays‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 15.84% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Qiagen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.77.

Qiagen Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:QGEN opened at $47.48 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.83. Qiagen has a fifty-two week low of $37.63 and a fifty-two week high of $49.30. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $43.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.47. The stock has a market cap of $10.55 billion, a PE ratio of 119.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.67.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.05. Qiagen had a net margin of 4.68% and a return on equity of 14.61%. The business had revenue of $483.46 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $465.66 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QGEN. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 8,074.0% in the 4th quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 31,817,740 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,416,844,000 after acquiring an additional 32,216,761 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Qiagen by 3,030.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,470,728 shares of the company’s stock valued at $179,501,000 after purchasing an additional 4,327,934 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $181,529,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Qiagen by 12.2% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 24,438,441 shares of the company’s stock valued at $972,191,000 after purchasing an additional 2,656,136 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 25,319,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,127,470,000 after buying an additional 2,202,040 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials.