Short Interest in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) Rises By 19.0%

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,450,000 shares, a growth of 19.0% from the July 15th total of 3,740,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,220,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.6 days.

Insider Activity at QuidelOrtho

In other QuidelOrtho news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 127,981 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.19, for a total transaction of $4,631,632.39. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,123,705 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $438,756,883.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 2,261,559 shares of company stock valued at $82,700,460 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of QuidelOrtho

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rubric Capital Management LP increased its position in QuidelOrtho by 51.9% in the second quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 3,645,590 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245,590 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 4th quarter worth about $41,968,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 144.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 908,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,961,000 after buying an additional 536,492 shares during the period. Invenomic Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 4th quarter worth about $37,144,000. Finally, Maverick Capital Ltd. grew its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 27.5% during the 2nd quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 1,728,913 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,434,000 after buying an additional 372,662 shares during the period. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Friday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $57.60.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

Shares of QuidelOrtho stock traded down $0.71 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $43.94. The company had a trading volume of 769,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,087,544. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.03. The stock has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a PE ratio of -1.67 and a beta of 0.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.79. QuidelOrtho has a 1-year low of $29.74 and a 1-year high of $84.60.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $637.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $613.51 million. QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 3.87% and a negative net margin of 65.60%. QuidelOrtho’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that QuidelOrtho will post 1.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.