Jefferies Financial Group Initiates Coverage on QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) in a research report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a hold rating and a $43.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Craig Hallum raised QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Friday, August 16th. UBS Group started coverage on QuidelOrtho in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. Finally, William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, QuidelOrtho has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $56.57.

QuidelOrtho Stock Down 5.0 %

QDEL opened at $38.50 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $40.14 and a 200-day moving average of $40.05. QuidelOrtho has a fifty-two week low of $29.74 and a fifty-two week high of $75.86. The company has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.38 and a beta of 0.11.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.55. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 66.25% and a positive return on equity of 4.24%. The business had revenue of $727.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $642.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that QuidelOrtho will post 1.73 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at QuidelOrtho

In other news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 8,260,183 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.31, for a total transaction of $291,667,061.73. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in QuidelOrtho by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,996,000 after purchasing an additional 16,059 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 33.4% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 38,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,749,000 after buying an additional 9,607 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,907,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,000,000 after buying an additional 275,522 shares during the period. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 6.9% during the 3rd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 151,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,887,000 after acquiring an additional 9,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in QuidelOrtho in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,320,000. Institutional investors 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.