QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Shares Gap Up to $40.36

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $40.36, but opened at $41.94. QuidelOrtho shares last traded at $42.10, with a volume of 44,668 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on QDEL. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note 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 note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $57.50.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $38.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company has a market cap of $2.96 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.62 and a beta of 0.08.

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

Insider Activity at QuidelOrtho

In related news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 169,467 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.10, for a total value of $7,134,560.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 8,724,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $367,294,966.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,261,559 shares of company stock valued at $82,700,460. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of QuidelOrtho

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in QuidelOrtho in the first quarter valued at $1,178,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 144.2% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 908,554 shares of the company’s stock valued at $66,961,000 after acquiring an additional 536,492 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in QuidelOrtho in the fourth quarter valued at $41,968,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,841,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,812,000 after acquiring an additional 44,770 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. acquired a new stake in QuidelOrtho in the fourth quarter valued at $3,691,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

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.