Morgan Stanley Reiterates “Equal Weight” Rating for Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reissued by analysts at Morgan Stanley in a report issued on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $48.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $50.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 6.64% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Qiagen to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. HSBC downgraded Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $54.00 target price (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.50.

Qiagen Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:QGEN opened at $45.01 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.37. Qiagen has a 1-year low of $39.03 and a 1-year high of $47.44. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 2.17 and a quick ratio of 1.89.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Qiagen by 170.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 956 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Qiagen by 36.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,604,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,096,000 after acquiring an additional 424,937 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in Qiagen during the third quarter worth approximately $490,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Finally, Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 24.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 19,506 shares of the company’s stock worth $834,000 after purchasing an additional 3,878 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN N.V. offers sample to insight solutions that transform biological materials into molecular insights worldwide. The company provides primary sample technology consumables, such as nucleic stabilization and purification kits for primary sample materials, manual and automated processing for genotyping, gene expression, and viral and bacterial analysis, as well as silica membranes and magnetic bead technologies; secondary sample technology consumables, including kits and components for purification of nucleic acids from secondary sample materials; and instruments for nucleic acid purification and accessories.