Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 2,650,000 shares, a decrease of 16.1% from the February 13th total of 3,160,000 shares. Approximately 1.2% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,120,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Atria Investments Inc lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 7,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $348,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 777,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,414,000 after purchasing an additional 69,448 shares during the last quarter. Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 665,023 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,065,000 after purchasing an additional 4,830 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $253,000. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lifted its stake in shares of Qiagen by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC now owns 140,842 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 2,310 shares during the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QGEN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut Qiagen from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Baird R W cut Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $52.50 price target (up previously from $40.83) on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.67 target price (down previously from $48.61) on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.71.

Qiagen Price Performance

Shares of Qiagen stock opened at $39.65 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $41.63 and a 200 day moving average of $42.39. Qiagen has a 12 month low of $37.63 and a 12 month high of $49.30. The firm has a market cap of $8.80 billion, a PE ratio of 110.42, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a current ratio of 3.61, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.01. Qiagen had a return on equity of 13.92% and a net margin of 4.23%. On average, research analysts expect that Qiagen will post 2.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.