16,557 Shares in Qiagen N.V. $QGEN Bought by Gabelli Funds LLC

Gabelli Funds LLC bought a new position in Qiagen N.V. (NYSE:QGEN) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 16,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $663,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Qiagen by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,542,944 shares of the company’s stock valued at $433,871,000 after buying an additional 118,135 shares during the last quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft bought a new position in Qiagen in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,368,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Qiagen by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 24,205,881 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,088,538,000 after buying an additional 264,921 shares in the last quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its position in Qiagen by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services now owns 98,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,440,000 after acquiring an additional 14,845 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in Qiagen in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,186,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.00% of the company’s stock.

Qiagen Price Performance

Shares of Qiagen stock opened at $41.47 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 2.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $38.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.88. Qiagen N.V. has a 52 week low of $32.53 and a 52 week high of $57.81. The stock has a market cap of $8.55 billion, a PE ratio of 21.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.64.

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.54. The company had revenue of $492.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $496.15 million. Qiagen had a net margin of 19.16% and a return on equity of 14.40%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.56 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Qiagen N.V. will post 2.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Qiagen Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 14th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 7th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is a boost from Qiagen’s previous annual dividend of $0.26. This represents a yield of 90.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 7th. Qiagen’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.32%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on QGEN shares. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Qiagen in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Berenberg Bank set a $45.50 target price on shares of Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Qiagen from an “overweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Kepler Capital Markets set a $38.60 price target on shares of Qiagen and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Qiagen and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.34.

Qiagen Profile

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.