Cerity Partners LLC Acquires 62,644 Shares of QuidelOrtho Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL) by 222.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,808 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 62,644 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC owned approximately 0.13% of QuidelOrtho worth $3,176,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in QuidelOrtho in the 4th quarter valued at about $871,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,169,000. Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 19.0% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 132,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,891,000 after purchasing an additional 21,100 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 6,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 661 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in QuidelOrtho by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 50,947 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,270,000 after purchasing an additional 5,540 shares in the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on QDEL shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 6th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho from $45.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of QuidelOrtho from $38.00 to $25.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, QuidelOrtho currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.33.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

Shares of QuidelOrtho stock opened at $25.45 on Friday. QuidelOrtho Corporation has a one year low of $23.77 and a one year high of $49.45. The company has a market capitalization of $1.72 billion, a PE ratio of -5.12 and a beta of 0.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 1.20. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $30.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.63.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.13. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 12.07% and a positive return on equity of 4.71%. The company had revenue of $692.80 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $694.97 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. QuidelOrtho’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho Corporation will post 2.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

QuidelOrtho 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.