Blue Trust Inc. Boosts Stake in QuidelOrtho Corporation $QDEL

Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in QuidelOrtho Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL) by 46.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,967 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 623 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in QuidelOrtho were worth $57,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of QDEL. AQR Capital Management LLC raised 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 valued at $90,130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,851,590 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in QuidelOrtho by 201.6% during 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 during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 42.4% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,588,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,555,000 after purchasing an additional 473,094 shares during the period. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY increased its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 570.7% in the first quarter. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY now owns 469,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,418,000 after purchasing an additional 399,500 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 10.6% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,813,833 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,370,000 after purchasing an additional 366,387 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

QuidelOrtho Stock Down 1.0%

QuidelOrtho stock opened at $28.13 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.91 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.30 and a beta of 0.27. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $27.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. QuidelOrtho Corporation has a 1-year low of $22.05 and a 1-year high of $49.45.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $613.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $612.36 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.07) EPS. QuidelOrtho’s revenue was down 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that QuidelOrtho Corporation will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on QDEL. UBS Group decreased their price objective 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. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (down previously from $40.00) on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus 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.