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

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,720,000 shares, an increase of 40.4% from the February 28th total of 2,650,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,140,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days. Currently, 1.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Qiagen

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QGEN. Groupama Asset Managment boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 32,216,761 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Qiagen by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 21,250,943 shares of the company’s stock valued at $963,386,000 after acquiring an additional 9,293,040 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Qiagen during the 4th quarter valued at about $181,529,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Qiagen by 9.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in Qiagen during the fourth quarter worth about $95,746,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group dropped their price objective 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. Baird R W cut Qiagen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $52.50 price objective (up previously from $40.83) on shares of Qiagen in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $46.67 target price (down from $48.61) on shares of Qiagen in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered 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 report on Wednesday, February 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Qiagen has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.71.

Qiagen Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE:QGEN traded down $0.65 on Tuesday, reaching $39.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,586,938 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,085,619. The firm has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 110.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.44. 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 has a 12-month low of $37.63 and a 12-month high of $49.30. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $40.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.05.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its 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 net margin of 4.23% and a return on equity of 13.92%. On average, equities analysts anticipate 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.