QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $35.35, but opened at $36.17. QuidelOrtho shares last traded at $34.79, with a volume of 59,222 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QDEL has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. UBS Group boosted their target price on QuidelOrtho from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on QuidelOrtho in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.20.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $40.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.18 and a beta of 0.10.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by ($0.44). QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 3.78% and a negative net margin of 72.84%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 19.6% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,238,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $500,690,000 after buying an additional 1,840,667 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in QuidelOrtho by 71.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,447,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,584,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439,293 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in QuidelOrtho in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,171,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,817,412 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,716,000 after purchasing an additional 764,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,320,000. 99.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.