UBS Group Boosts QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) Price Target to $31.00

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) had its price objective boosted by stock analysts at UBS Group from $26.00 to $31.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. UBS Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 38.42% from the company’s previous close.

QDEL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wall Street Zen lowered QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research downgraded QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set 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 issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $38.80.

QuidelOrtho Trading Down 18.2%

QDEL stock traded down $4.98 during trading on Thursday, hitting $22.40. The company had a trading volume of 2,302,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,307,365. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.44 and a beta of 0.35. QuidelOrtho has a 52-week low of $22.05 and a 52-week high of $49.45. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $28.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.29. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 16.10% and a positive return on equity of 5.29%. The business had revenue of $699.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $667.45 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. QuidelOrtho has set its FY 2025 guidance at 2.000-2.150 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that QuidelOrtho will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in QDEL. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in QuidelOrtho by 230.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,655,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,130,000 after buying an additional 1,851,590 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in QuidelOrtho by 201.6% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 941,370 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,130,000 after buying an additional 629,246 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 46.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,678,670 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,385,000 after purchasing an additional 529,770 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 23.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,700,940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,841,000 after buying an additional 510,291 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 42.4% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,588,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,555,000 after purchasing an additional 473,094 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

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.