Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 106,642 Shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) by 64.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 272,037 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 106,642 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in QuidelOrtho were worth $12,405,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rubric Capital Management LP grew its position in QuidelOrtho by 15.2% in the 3rd quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 4,200,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $191,520,000 after purchasing an additional 554,410 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in QuidelOrtho by 16.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,907,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,000,000 after buying an additional 275,522 shares in the last quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. increased its stake in QuidelOrtho by 27.5% during the second quarter. Maverick Capital Ltd. now owns 1,728,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,434,000 after acquiring an additional 372,662 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 28.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,256,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,290,000 after acquiring an additional 274,633 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 1.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,703 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,996,000 after purchasing an additional 16,059 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

QuidelOrtho Trading Down 0.8 %

QDEL stock opened at $44.25 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.59 and a beta of 0.11. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $40.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.12. QuidelOrtho Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.74 and a fifty-two week high of $75.82.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on QDEL. UBS Group began coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 price objective for the company. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on QuidelOrtho in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $43.00 target price for the company. Citigroup raised QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $44.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Craig Hallum upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.43.

Insider Transactions at QuidelOrtho

In other QuidelOrtho news, CEO Brian J. Blaser acquired 6,033 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $41.42 per share, for a total transaction of $249,886.86. Following the completion of the acquisition, 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 acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 8,260,183 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were 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 owned by company insiders.

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.