Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sets New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $57.12 and last traded at $54.1950, with a volume of 1837374 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $47.57.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen cut Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 10th. Citigroup downgraded Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $57.89 to $52.63 in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $57.89 price target (up previously from $55.79) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.84.

Qiagen Trading Up 16.3%

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.69 billion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a quick ratio of 2.30, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $532.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $525.68 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.80% and a net margin of 19.58%.Qiagen’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in Qiagen during the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Qiagen by 1,383.3% in the third quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 830 shares during the period. MAI Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 998.9% during the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 889 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 400.5% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 849 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 260.1% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,102 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 796 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.