QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Sets New 1-Year Low After Analyst Downgrade

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)’s share price reached a new 52-week low on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $38.00 to $25.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an underweight rating on the stock. QuidelOrtho traded as low as $23.77 and last traded at $24.56, with a volume of 1460115 shares. The stock had previously closed at $25.17.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com cut QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.83.

Institutional Trading of QuidelOrtho

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in QuidelOrtho by 12.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,817,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $303,716,000 after purchasing an additional 764,900 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in QuidelOrtho by 71.7% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,447,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,584,000 after acquiring an additional 1,439,293 shares during the last quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC now owns 1,977,697 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,106,000 after purchasing an additional 100,522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in QuidelOrtho by 14.0% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,406,654 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,666,000 after purchasing an additional 173,174 shares during the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.13. The company has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.85 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities research analysts predict that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.