Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Short Interest Up 40.4% in March

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,720,000 shares, a growth of 40.4% from the February 28th total of 2,650,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Qiagen

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Groupama Asset Managment boosted its position in Qiagen by 8,074.0% during the fourth quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 31,817,740 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,416,844,000 after purchasing an additional 32,216,761 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Qiagen by 77.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,250,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $963,386,000 after buying an additional 9,293,040 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Qiagen during the 4th quarter valued at $181,529,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Qiagen by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 25,319,332 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,127,470,000 after acquiring an additional 2,202,040 shares during the period. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Qiagen in the fourth quarter worth $95,746,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on QGEN shares. Robert W. Baird downgraded 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 note on Wednesday, February 19th. Baird R W lowered Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $52.50 target price (up previously from $40.83) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.67 price target (down from $48.61) on shares of Qiagen in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven research 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 stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.71.

Qiagen Stock Performance

QGEN stock traded up $0.32 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $40.17. The company had a trading volume of 1,248,481 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,081,483. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a current ratio of 3.61. The firm has a market cap of $8.91 billion, a PE ratio of 111.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.44. Qiagen has a 12 month low of $37.63 and a 12 month high of $49.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $40.73 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.09.

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

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.