QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Stock Price Up 4.3% – Here’s Why

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) shares rose 4.3% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $40.95 and last traded at $40.17. Approximately 218,369 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 78% from the average daily volume of 986,571 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.50.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QDEL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Craig Hallum raised shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $53.43.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The company has a market cap of $2.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.47 and a beta of 0.11.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at QuidelOrtho

In other 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 transaction of $291,667,061.73. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 20.3% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 8,334 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,000 after acquiring an additional 1,404 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in QuidelOrtho by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 6,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $227,000 after acquiring an additional 572 shares during the period. Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC raised its stake in QuidelOrtho by 23.7% in the 2nd quarter. Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC now owns 18,058 shares of the company’s stock valued at $600,000 after acquiring an additional 3,455 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 907.3% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 744 shares during the period. Finally, Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. increased its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 9.8% during the second quarter. Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. now owns 593,157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,705,000 after buying an additional 52,729 shares during the period. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

QuidelOrtho Company Profile

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.