Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Downgraded to “Strong Sell” Rating by Zacks Research

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Wall Street Zen raised Qiagen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Qiagen has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.20.

Qiagen Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:QGEN opened at $43.01 on Monday. Qiagen has a 1-year low of $40.14 and a 1-year high of $57.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 3.90 and a quick ratio of 3.31. The stock has a market cap of $9.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $49.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $49.05.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.01. Qiagen had a net margin of 20.33% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The business had revenue of $540.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $528.53 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.61 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Qiagen will post 2.26 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,205,881 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,088,538,000 after purchasing an additional 264,921 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,542,944 shares of the company’s stock worth $433,871,000 after buying an additional 118,135 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in 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 in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Qiagen by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 7,907,801 shares of the company’s stock worth $355,614,000 after buying an additional 697,342 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi increased its holdings in Qiagen by 4.4% in the third quarter. Amundi now owns 4,290,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $201,471,000 after buying an additional 181,509 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.