GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases 1,308 Shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) by 73.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,086 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,308 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in QuidelOrtho were worth $141,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC bought a new position in QuidelOrtho in the first quarter valued at $1,178,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,841,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $356,812,000 after acquiring an additional 44,770 shares in the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the first quarter valued at about $2,388,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in QuidelOrtho during the first quarter worth about $919,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 316.2% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 28,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $962,000 after purchasing an additional 21,968 shares during the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 169,467 shares of QuidelOrtho stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.10, for a total transaction of $7,134,560.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 8,724,346 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $367,294,966.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,371,145 shares of company stock valued at $52,437,178. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

QuidelOrtho Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of QuidelOrtho stock opened at $41.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.94. QuidelOrtho Co. has a 1 year low of $29.74 and a 1 year high of $75.86. The company has a market capitalization of $2.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.56 and a beta of 0.09.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by $0.15. The company had revenue of $637.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $613.51 million. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 65.60% and a positive return on equity of 3.87%. QuidelOrtho’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.26 EPS. Research analysts forecast that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 1.77 EPS 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.