QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.20.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on QDEL shares. Citigroup upgraded QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $44.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com lowered QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of QuidelOrtho from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QDEL opened at $35.16 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The company has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.16 and a beta of 0.10. QuidelOrtho has a twelve month low of $29.74 and a twelve month high of $49.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.74.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by ($0.44). QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 72.84% and a positive return on equity of 3.78%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in QDEL. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 19.6% in the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,238,826 shares of the company’s stock worth $500,690,000 after buying an additional 1,840,667 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 71.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,447,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,584,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439,293 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in QuidelOrtho during the 4th quarter worth $34,171,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,817,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $303,716,000 after acquiring an additional 764,900 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the third quarter valued at about $34,320,000. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.