QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $54.00.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Tuesday. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 target price on the stock. Craig Hallum raised QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $57.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Friday, August 16th. UBS Group started coverage on QuidelOrtho in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other QuidelOrtho news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 8,260,183 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.31, for a total value of $291,667,061.73. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of QDEL. Rubric Capital Management LP grew its position in QuidelOrtho by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 4,200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $191,520,000 after acquiring an additional 554,410 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 16.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,907,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,000,000 after purchasing an additional 275,522 shares during the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 27.5% in the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 1,728,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,434,000 after buying an additional 372,662 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,256,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,290,000 after buying an additional 274,633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,996,000 after buying an additional 16,059 shares during the period. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

QDEL opened at $38.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The company has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a PE ratio of -1.38 and a beta of 0.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.05. QuidelOrtho has a 1 year low of $29.74 and a 1 year high of $75.86.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.55. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 66.25% and a positive return on equity of 4.24%. The business had revenue of $727.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $642.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. QuidelOrtho’s revenue was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho will post 1.73 EPS for the current year.

About QuidelOrtho

QuidelOrtho Corporation provides diagnostic testing solutions. The company operates through Labs, Transfusion Medicine, Point-of-Care, and Molecular Diagnostics business units. The Labs business unit provides clinical chemistry laboratory instruments and tests that measure target chemicals in bodily fluids for the evaluation of health and the clinical management of patients; immunoassay laboratory instruments and tests, which measure proteins as they act as antigens in the spread of disease, antibodies in the immune response spurred by disease, or markers of proper organ function and health; testing products to detect and monitor disease progression across a spectrum of therapeutic areas; and specialized diagnostic solutions.