Berenberg Downgrades Qiagen Rating, Price Target Amid Rising Competition, Growth Concerns

05:56 AM EDT, 07/15/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Berenberg downgraded Qiagen (QIA.F) to hold from buy and reduced its price target to 40 euros from 50 euros, citing growing market pressure on its tuberculosis testing franchise and expectations of a slowdown in US research spending. "Two factors regarding QIAGEN's challenging H1 2026 concern us most. The first is the pace at which the company's outlook deteriorated. Lower QuantiFERON (QF) immigration demand is beyond QIAGEN's control, but the lack of visibility was troubling, and we are concerned by the increasing competitive pressure that this franchise is likely to face following new channel checks. The second is the weakening of its expectations for US life sciences research spending, which we thought was already adequately factored into its prior guidance," according to a Tuesday note. "A new buyback programme was a small positive given the extent of the stock's initial sell-off; however, we now see limited fundamental upside, while takeover speculation will likely drive near-term performance (which we do not have a strong view on). Without a takeover, we think that QF competitive risk will cap share price performance," analysts added. While Roche's (RO.SW) delayed US timeline and Qiagen's technical advantages offer temporary insulation for the QuantiFERON franchise, the research firm noted that customer feedback suggests the molecular testing company will "likely face rising pressure." Consequently, with added competition from Revvity, QuantiFERON's growth is projected to drop below the company average by 2028, putting Berenberg's full-year 2026 to 2030 forecasts 1% to 5% below market consensus. Against this backdrop, Berenberg lowered its full-year 2026 through 2028 estimates, including sales, EBIT and EPS.