Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Downgraded by Baird R W to “Hold”

Baird R W cut shares of Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. Robert W. Baird lowered Qiagen from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $52.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $52.50 target price (up from $40.83) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $46.67 target price (down from $48.61) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Qiagen currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.71.

Qiagen Stock Performance

QGEN stock opened at $39.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $43.27 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.10. Qiagen has a 1-year low of $39.02 and a 1-year high of $49.30. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The firm has a market cap of $8.71 billion, a PE ratio of 109.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.36.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.01. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Qiagen by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,380,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,457,000 after purchasing an additional 90,181 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its stake in Qiagen by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,426,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,001,000 after purchasing an additional 68,415 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its stake in Qiagen by 129.3% during the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 20,192 shares of the company’s stock valued at $920,000 after purchasing an additional 11,385 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Qiagen by 24.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 19,506 shares of the company’s stock valued at $834,000 after purchasing an additional 3,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Qiagen by 36.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,604,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,096,000 after purchasing an additional 424,937 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Company 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.