Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Shares Sold by Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC

Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC lessened its stake in shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) by 50.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 71,428 shares of the company’s stock after selling 73,960 shares during the period. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC’s holdings in Qiagen were worth $3,181,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of Qiagen by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 11,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,418 shares in the last quarter. Bridgefront Capital LLC acquired a new position in Qiagen in the fourth quarter worth approximately $281,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter valued at $564,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 66.3% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 63,026 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,807,000 after buying an additional 25,134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the 4th quarter worth $23,584,000. Institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Trading Down 0.7 %

Qiagen stock opened at $41.87 on Friday. Qiagen has a 12 month low of $37.63 and a 12 month high of $49.30. The company has a quick ratio of 3.09, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market cap of $9.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.67. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.75.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on QGEN shares. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Qiagen from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 21st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Baird R W lowered Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qiagen has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.42.

About Qiagen

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.