QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Coverage Initiated at UBS Group

UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) in a note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 10.13% from the company’s previous close.

QDEL has been the topic of several other research reports. Craig Hallum raised shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Friday, August 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.83.

QuidelOrtho Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:QDEL opened at $45.40 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.72 and a beta of 0.08. QuidelOrtho has a 52-week low of $29.74 and a 52-week high of $75.86. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.66 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.44.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.15. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 65.60% and a positive return on equity of 3.87%. The business had revenue of $637.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $613.51 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. QuidelOrtho’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that QuidelOrtho will post 1.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 169,467 shares of QuidelOrtho stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.10, for a total transaction of $7,134,560.70. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,724,346 shares in the company, valued at $367,294,966.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 1,902,466 shares of company stock valued at $69,552,560 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in 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. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 27.0% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,778 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 1st quarter worth approximately $86,000. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $102,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 17,095.0% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,439 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 3,419 shares during the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.