QuidelOrtho Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Analysts

Key Points

• QuidelOrtho Corporation has received an average rating of "Hold" from seven brokerages, with one sell, two hold, and four buy ratings, while the average 12-month price target is $42.17.
• Among institutional investors, Sterling Capital Management significantly increased its stake by 75.3% in the fourth quarter, while several other firms also expanded their holdings in the company.
• QuidelOrtho reported an EPS of $0.12 for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, and its revenue of $613.90 million was slightly above expectations, although it marked a 3.6% decrease from the previous year.

QuidelOrtho Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the seven analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.1667.

QDEL has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho from $38.00 to $25.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of QuidelOrtho from $29.00 to $26.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of QuidelOrtho from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded QuidelOrtho from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised QuidelOrtho from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 230.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,655,576 shares of the company's stock worth $90,130,000 after buying an additional 1,851,590 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $500,690,000 after acquiring an additional 1,840,667 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in QuidelOrtho by 201.6% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 941,370 shares of the company's stock worth $27,130,000 after acquiring an additional 629,246 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in QuidelOrtho by 46.1% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,678,670 shares of the company's stock worth $48,385,000 after acquiring an additional 529,770 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in QuidelOrtho by 23.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,700,940 shares of the company's stock worth $77,841,000 after acquiring an additional 510,291 shares during the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

Shares of QDEL traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $25.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 975,491 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,327,058. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.96. QuidelOrtho has a 52-week low of $22.05 and a 52-week high of $49.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a market cap of $1.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.96 and a beta of -0.04.

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

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.