QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.20.

QDEL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their price target on QuidelOrtho from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 15th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $500,690,000 after acquiring an additional 1,840,667 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in QuidelOrtho by 12.6% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in QuidelOrtho by 71.7% during the fourth 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. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC raised its stake in QuidelOrtho by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 1,977,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,106,000 after purchasing an additional 100,522 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 16.9% in the 3rd 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

QuidelOrtho Trading Down 4.9 %

Shares of QDEL stock opened at $25.27 on Thursday. QuidelOrtho has a 1-year low of $24.85 and a 1-year high of $49.45. The company has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.83 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.79.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, equities research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho will post 2.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.