Royal Bank of Canada Lowers QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Price Target to $61.00

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) had its target price dropped by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $64.00 to $61.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target points to a potential upside of 45.76% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on QDEL. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group boosted their target price on QuidelOrtho from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.71.

QuidelOrtho Trading Up 4.8 %

QDEL stock traded up $1.91 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $41.85. The stock had a trading volume of 853,498 shares, compared to its average volume of 886,261. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. QuidelOrtho has a twelve month low of $29.74 and a twelve month high of $49.56. The firm has a market cap of $2.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.50 and a beta of 0.08. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.35.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.07 by ($0.44). QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 4.24% and a negative net margin of 66.25%. As a group, research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho will post 1.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at QuidelOrtho

In other QuidelOrtho news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 8,260,183 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.31, for a total value of $291,667,061.73. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian J. Blaser purchased 6,033 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $41.42 per share, with a total value of $249,886.86. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,033 shares in the company, valued at approximately $249,886.86. This represents a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 4th quarter worth about $2,169,000. Capula Management Ltd bought a new position in shares of QuidelOrtho during the fourth quarter worth approximately $350,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 71.7% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,447,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,439,293 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 112.3% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 28,164 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,259,000 after purchasing an additional 14,898 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 17.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,083,461 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,285,000 after buying an additional 162,758 shares in the last quarter. 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.