Sei Investments Co. Decreases Stock Holdings in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN

Sei Investments Co. lowered its position in shares of Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) by 9.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,766,782 shares of the company’s stock after selling 192,586 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. owned about 0.86% of Qiagen worth $70,742,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State of Wyoming raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 38.3% during the first quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 4,625 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,000 after acquiring an additional 1,281 shares during the last quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the first quarter worth about $1,368,000. Andra AP fonden bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the first quarter worth about $225,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Qiagen by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,665,011 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,649,000 after purchasing an additional 286,665 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in Qiagen during the 1st quarter valued at about $10,811,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:QGEN opened at $41.38 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.14 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a current ratio of 3.21. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $38.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.14. Qiagen N.V. has a 52-week low of $32.53 and a 52-week high of $57.81.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is a boost from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a dividend yield of 90.0%. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on QGEN. Wall Street Zen lowered Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered Qiagen from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Citigroup reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Robert W. Baird set a $43.00 target price on Qiagen and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.34.

About Qiagen

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.