QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Trading Down 3.8% – What’s Next?

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) shares were down 3.8% on Wednesday . The stock traded as low as $43.48 and last traded at $43.96. Approximately 48,343 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 95% from the average daily volume of 891,628 shares. The stock had previously closed at $45.71.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on QDEL. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.43.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.90 billion, a PE ratio of -1.55 and a beta of 0.08. The business has a 50-day moving average of $42.74 and a 200 day moving average of $41.86.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last released its quarterly 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. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 66.25% and a positive return on equity of 4.24%. The company had revenue of $727.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $642.16 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 8,260,183 shares of the business’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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian J. Blaser bought 6,033 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were bought at an average price of $41.42 per share, for a total transaction of $249,886.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,886.86. This represents a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of QuidelOrtho

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 2,799.8% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 160,154 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,322,000 after purchasing an additional 154,631 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 227.6% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 143,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,770,000 after buying an additional 99,755 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC boosted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 1.0% during the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 46,846 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,556,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in QuidelOrtho by 68.5% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 14,042 shares of the company’s stock worth $640,000 after buying an additional 5,708 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in QuidelOrtho by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 14,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $676,000 after acquiring an additional 3,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

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.