Short Interest in Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Declines By 16.1%

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Qiagen Stock Performance

QGEN stock traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.64. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 768,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,020,972. Qiagen has a 1 year low of $37.63 and a 1 year high of $49.30. The stock has a market cap of $8.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.38, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.44. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $41.46 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.33. The company has a quick ratio of 3.09, a current ratio of 3.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

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

Institutional Trading of Qiagen

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 3.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,380,008 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,457,000 after buying an additional 90,181 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 5.0% in 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 period. XTX Topco Ltd grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 24.8% in the third 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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 valued at $73,096,000 after buying an additional 424,937 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

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.