Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Buys Shares of 15,772 Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 15,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $703,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of Qiagen by 25.2% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,851,510 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,978,000 after purchasing an additional 573,269 shares in the last quarter. Crestline Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $407,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of Qiagen by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 11,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,418 shares in the last quarter. Bridgefront Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $281,000. Finally, BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $564,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.42.

Qiagen Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of Qiagen stock opened at $42.65 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.48 billion, a PE ratio of 118.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67. Qiagen has a 1-year low of $37.63 and a 1-year high of $49.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 3.09.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $483.46 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $465.66 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 4.23% and a return on equity of 13.92%. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Qiagen Profile

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.