Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Qiagen Call Options (NYSE:QGEN)

Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 20,658 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 1,182% compared to the average volume of 1,611 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QGEN. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH bought a new stake in Qiagen during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,218,000. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qiagen in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,197,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Qiagen in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,032,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Qiagen during the third quarter worth $3,677,000. Finally, Generali Asset Management SPA SGR lifted its position in Qiagen by 102.8% in the 3rd quarter. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR now owns 68,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,078,000 after acquiring an additional 34,912 shares in the last quarter. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Qiagen Trading Up 2.3%

NYSE QGEN traded up $1.08 on Tuesday, reaching $48.53. The company had a trading volume of 812,064 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,752,823. The company has a quick ratio of 3.31, a current ratio of 3.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. Qiagen has a 52 week low of $39.61 and a 52 week high of $57.81. The stock has a market cap of $10.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.09, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.67. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $49.89 and its 200-day moving average is $49.40.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $540.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $528.53 million. Qiagen had a return on equity of 14.56% and a net margin of 20.33%.Qiagen’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.61 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Qiagen will post 2.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Qiagen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $50.00 target price on Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Qiagen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $52.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Qiagen from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Qiagen from $55.40 to $55.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.20.

About Qiagen

Qiagen NV (NYSE: QGEN) is a global provider of sample and assay technologies designed to enable molecular testing in the fields of molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academic research and pharmaceutical development. The company’s solutions span the full workflow of nucleic acid and protein analysis, offering customers standardized kits, instruments and software tools that streamline the preparation, detection and quantification of DNA, RNA and proteins.

The company’s product portfolio includes nucleic acid extraction and purification systems, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) reagents and instrumentation, digital PCR platforms, next-generation sequencing (NGS) library‐preparation kits and proteomics solutions.