VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Buys Shares of 38,900 QuidelOrtho Corporation $QDEL

Key Points

• The Virginia Retirement Systems acquired 38,900 shares of QuidelOrtho Corporation for approximately $1.12 million, increasing its stake to about 0.06% of the company.
• QuidelOrtho reported earnings of $0.12 per share for the last quarter, surpassing analyst expectations, but experienced a 3.6% decline in year-over-year revenue.
• Many institutional investors, including AQR Capital Management and American Century Companies, have significantly boosted their holdings in QuidelOrtho this year, indicating strong institutional interest.

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 38,900 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,121,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned about 0.06% of QuidelOrtho at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in QDEL. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 230.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,655,576 shares of the company's stock valued at $90,130,000 after buying an additional 1,851,590 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 201.6% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 941,370 shares of the company's stock valued at $27,130,000 after buying an additional 629,246 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 42.4% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,588,645 shares of the company's stock valued at $55,555,000 after buying an additional 473,094 shares during the last quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY increased its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 570.7% during the first quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY now owns 469,500 shares of the company's stock valued at $16,418,000 after buying an additional 399,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 10.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,813,833 shares of the company's stock worth $133,370,000 after purchasing an additional 366,387 shares during the period. 99.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:QDEL opened at $29.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $28.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $28.34. QuidelOrtho Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.05 and a fifty-two week high of $49.45. The firm has a market cap of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.56 and a beta of 0.27.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.11. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 16.10% and a positive return on equity of 5.29%. The firm had revenue of $613.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $612.36 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.07) earnings per share. QuidelOrtho's revenue for the quarter was down 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that QuidelOrtho Corporation will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of QuidelOrtho from $29.00 to $26.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (e+)" rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down previously from $40.00) on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, QuidelOrtho has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average target price of $37.80.

About QuidelOrtho

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.

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