Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 13,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,024,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in QDEL. Senvest Management LLC boosted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 7.6% in the third quarter. Senvest Management LLC now owns 3,330,278 shares of the company’s stock worth $243,244,000 after acquiring an additional 235,000 shares in the last quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 69.1% in the 3rd quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. now owns 1,350,032 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,606,000 after purchasing an additional 551,524 shares in the last quarter. LGT Capital Partners LTD. grew its position in QuidelOrtho by 69.9% during the 4th quarter. LGT Capital Partners LTD. now owns 954,466 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,344,000 after purchasing an additional 392,790 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in QuidelOrtho by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 760,632 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,557,000 after purchasing an additional 76,866 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 217.4% in the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 737,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,859,000 after buying an additional 505,050 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other QuidelOrtho news, CFO Joseph M. Busky acquired 2,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $46.35 per share, for a total transaction of $99,652.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 2,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99,652.50. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

QDEL has been the topic of several research reports. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $76.00 target price (down from $100.00) on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $66.00 to $37.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $42.00 price target (down previously from $70.00) on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho from $130.00 to $81.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.60.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

QDEL opened at $40.82 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $44.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $60.03. QuidelOrtho Co. has a 1 year low of $37.78 and a 1 year high of $95.02. The stock has a market cap of $2.73 billion, a P/E ratio of -255.13 and a beta of 0.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The company reported $1.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.01 by ($0.84). QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 5.54% and a negative net margin of 0.34%. The firm had revenue of $742.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $796.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 2.28 earnings per share for the current year.

QuidelOrtho Company Profile

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.