QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) Receives $53.43 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $53.43.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Craig Hallum upgraded QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Citigroup upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group assumed coverage on QuidelOrtho in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on QuidelOrtho in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

Shares of QDEL stock opened at $45.04 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.61 and a beta of 0.11. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $40.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.81. QuidelOrtho has a 1-year low of $29.74 and a 1-year high of $75.09.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.55. QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 4.24% and a negative net margin of 66.25%. The firm had revenue of $727.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $642.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. QuidelOrtho’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that QuidelOrtho will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Brian J. Blaser acquired 6,033 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $41.42 per share, for a total transaction of $249,886.86. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $249,886.86. The trade was a ? increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of QuidelOrtho

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 64.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 272,037 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,405,000 after acquiring an additional 106,642 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,996,000 after purchasing an additional 16,059 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 33.4% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 38,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,749,000 after purchasing an additional 9,607 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 16.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,907,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,000,000 after purchasing an additional 275,522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 6.9% during the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 151,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,887,000 after buying an additional 9,793 shares in the last quarter. 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.