Investors Buy High Volume of Put Options on QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL)

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors acquired 2,023 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 595% compared to the average volume of 291 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

NASDAQ:QDEL opened at $36.18 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.30 and a beta of 0.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $42.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.47. QuidelOrtho has a 12 month low of $29.74 and a 12 month high of $75.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.55. The business had revenue of $727.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $642.16 million. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 66.25% and a positive return on equity of 4.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that QuidelOrtho will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 0.6% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 43,532 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,446,000 after acquiring an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Balanced Rock Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in QuidelOrtho by 5.1% in the second quarter. Balanced Rock Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,784 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 27.0% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,778 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 378 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC increased its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 46,846 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,556,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Hunter Perkins Capital Management LLC now owns 18,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $848,000 after buying an additional 530 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

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.