Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) walked into its second quarter of 2026 bracing investors for a roughly 2% sales decline. Instead, net sales came in flat at $535 million on August 6, and adjusted diluted EPS hit $0.62, both ahead of the company's own outlook. For a diagnostics and life sciences supplier still working through the loss of discontinued product lines, beating a cautious bar is one thing.
What happens next, as management leans on a stack of new launches to carry the back half of the year, is the more interesting question. The company's so-called growth pillars, the businesses management is counting on to outpace the broader market, expanded 5% at constant exchange rates in the quarter. Sample Technologies led with 9% CER growth, driven by automated consumables and higher instrument sales.
QIAcuity, the digital PCR platform, posted double-digit consumables growth even as weaker OEM demand offset some of that strength. QuantiFERON, the tuberculosis test that had flagged a sharp drop in US immigration testing demand back in the first quarter, still managed to return to growth as demand across other testing groups more than made up the difference. Behind those numbers sits a wave of product activity.
QIAsymphony Connect launched commercially, QIAsprint Connect placements are drawing what management called strong pharma customer acceptance, and two new bloodstream infection panels for QIAstat launched in Europe, detecting 33 pathogens and 28 resistance markers in about an hour, with US FDA approval targeted by year-end. Parse, the single-cell analysis business, is running ahead of its roughly $40 million 2026 sales target and was selected for a NASA-supported research program aboard the International Space Station. Qiagen also completed a $500 million share repurchase in January and raised its annual dividend 40% to $0.35 per share.
The flat top line masks uneven performance underneath. Diagnostic solutions overall declined 2% at constant currency, and PCR and nucleic acid amplification sales fell 8%, with QIAstat-Dx down 7% as a tough prior-year comparison in respiratory testing outweighed gains in gastrointestinal and meningitis panels. Profitability also gave ground.
Adjusted operating income fell 2% to $157 million, with the margin slipping to 29.4% from 29.9% a year earlier, and adjusted gross margin declined to 66.2% from 66.7% on product mix shifts. Regionally, EMEA sales fell 2% CER as declines in Germany, France, and Italy outweighed gains elsewhere, and Asia Pacific sales fell 2% CER as China dropped in the low teens, even though it improved sequentially. Inventory days outstanding also climbed to 153 from 149, tied to stockpiling ahead of new launches.
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