Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sets New 1-Year Low – Here’s What Happened

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $32.53 and last traded at $32.7360, with a volume of 4032489 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $33.70.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QGEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating and set a $43.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (down from $46.00) on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Qiagen from $60.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Barclays set a $38.00 price objective on Qiagen and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.38.

Qiagen Stock Down 2.9%

The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 3.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.86. The company has a market cap of $6.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.40% and a net margin of 19.16%.The company had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 7th will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is a boost from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 7th. This represents a yield of 104.0%. Qiagen’s payout ratio is presently 13.61%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 57,359 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,563,000 after buying an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,358 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 256 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 51,780 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,288,000 after buying an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 16,363 shares of the company’s stock worth $747,000 after buying an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank raised its stake in shares of Qiagen by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 6,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $302,000 after buying an additional 314 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.