Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Increases Stock Position in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) by 100.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 28,000 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,000 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in QuidelOrtho were worth $1,277,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QDEL. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 907.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 744 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 27.0% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,778 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $86,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $102,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 17,095.0% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 3,439 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,000 after acquiring an additional 3,419 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other QuidelOrtho news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 78,180 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.94, for a total value of $3,122,509.20. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,441,022 shares in the company, valued at $337,134,418.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

QuidelOrtho Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of QuidelOrtho stock opened at $39.10 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $42.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.42. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. QuidelOrtho Co. has a twelve month low of $29.74 and a twelve month high of $75.86. The stock has a market cap of $2.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.41 and a beta of 0.09.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported ($0.07) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.15. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 65.60% and a positive return on equity of 3.87%. The firm had revenue of $637.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $613.51 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on QDEL shares. UBS Group started coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Craig Hallum upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.83.

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.