Gagnon Securities LLC Boosts Stock Position in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Gagnon Securities LLC increased its holdings in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) by 45.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 91,060 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 28,431 shares during the period. Gagnon Securities LLC’s holdings in QuidelOrtho were worth $4,057,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in QDEL. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 122.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 1,895 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 344.3% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,995 shares of the company’s stock worth $91,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 522.2% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 87,372 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,892,000 after purchasing an additional 73,330 shares in the last quarter. Clear Harbor Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the 4th quarter worth approximately $458,000. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the 4th quarter worth approximately $301,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

QDEL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup raised QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on QuidelOrtho in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.43.

Insider Buying and Selling at QuidelOrtho

In related news, CEO Brian J. Blaser bought 6,033 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $41.42 per share, with a total value of $249,886.86. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,886.86. This represents a ∞ increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 8,260,183 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.31, for a total transaction of $291,667,061.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

QuidelOrtho Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:QDEL opened at $43.46 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.96. QuidelOrtho Co. has a 12 month low of $29.74 and a 12 month high of $70.47. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.55. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 66.25% and a positive return on equity of 4.24%. The business had revenue of $727.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $642.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 1.73 earnings per share for the current 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.