MS upgrades Qiagen seeing growth beyond COVID testing
23/05/2023 08:50
** Morgan Stanley upgrades Qiagen QIA.DE to "overweight"
from "equal weight" as it sees growth opportunities beyond
COVID-19 testing for the multinational life sciences firm
** The broker sees robust demand for latent tuberculosis and
multiplex syndromic testing, the two top near-term growth
drivers
** Although shares of the COVID tests developer have been
hit by post-pandemic earnings volatility, MS says there are
underlying growth opportunities behind that
** Qiagen's shares are down 10% YTD vs the EU MedTech sector
up 40%, even though its EPS contracted only 1% while the
sector's EPS lost 8%, the broker says
** "We believe this is a function of the market assigning a
discount related to Covid earnings volatility," MS says
** It notes Qiagen has consecutively beaten or met estimates
over the last 12 quarters, including seven quarters of
double-digit non-COVID sales growth, which "counters the
perception of earnings volatility faced by the company"
** Qiagen shares rise 2% in the morning trade and are among
leaders of Germany's blue-chip index DAX .GDAXI
(Reporting by Andrey Sychev)
((Andrey.Sychev2@thomsonreuters.com))