QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating, signaling a shift in investor outlook.
• Despite the downgrade, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded the stock to a "buy" with a price target of $44.00, highlighting mixed analyst sentiments on QDEL.
• QuidelOrtho reported a $0.74 earnings per share for the recent quarter, exceeding expectations, yet its revenue fell by 2.6% year-over-year.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on QuidelOrtho from $38.00 to $25.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 21st. UBS Group reduced their price objective on QuidelOrtho from $45.00 to $29.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded QuidelOrtho from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $44.33.

QuidelOrtho Stock Down 0.6%

NASDAQ QDEL traded down $0.15 on Friday, reaching $25.94. The company had a trading volume of 83,552 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,292,515. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.75 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.22 and a beta of 0.07. The company's fifty day moving average is $29.15 and its 200 day moving average is $33.50. QuidelOrtho has a 52-week low of $23.77 and a 52-week high of $49.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $692.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $694.97 million. QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 4.71% and a negative net margin of 12.07%. QuidelOrtho's quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that QuidelOrtho will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of QuidelOrtho

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QDEL. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,169,000. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 6,874 shares of the company's stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 661 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 50,947 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,270,000 after acquiring an additional 5,540 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the 4th quarter valued at about $586,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the 4th quarter valued at about $221,000. Hedge funds and other 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.