Gabelli Funds LLC Has $6.91 Million Holdings in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Gabelli Funds LLC grew its stake in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) by 7.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 144,130 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 9,500 shares during the quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC owned 0.22% of QuidelOrtho worth $6,910,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 23,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,746,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 2.2% in the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 14,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $681,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 2.5% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 12,127 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 5,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $406,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 1.3% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 43,275 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,075,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of QuidelOrtho from $81.00 to $68.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, QuidelOrtho currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $59.00.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

Shares of QDEL stock traded up $0.67 on Friday, hitting $38.91. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,159,802 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,572,828. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.55. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $37.04 and its 200-day moving average is $46.36. QuidelOrtho Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.74 and a fifty-two week high of $89.11. The company has a market capitalization of $2.61 billion, a PE ratio of -1.47 and a beta of 0.07.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.36 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $711.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $697.33 million. QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 3.96% and a negative net margin of 61.65%. Equities research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other QuidelOrtho news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 24,390 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.09, for a total transaction of $733,895.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 11,141,580 shares in the company, valued at $335,250,142.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold 1,468,847 shares of company stock worth $51,024,340 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% 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.