Merit Financial Group LLC Makes New $301,000 Investment in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $301,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in QuidelOrtho during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 73.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,000 after acquiring an additional 1,308 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 4,460.0% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,560 shares of the company’s stock valued at $208,000 after acquiring an additional 4,460 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the second quarter worth $217,000. Finally, Unison Advisors LLC bought a new position in QuidelOrtho during the third quarter worth $222,000. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other QuidelOrtho news, CEO Brian J. Blaser purchased 6,033 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,033 shares in the company, valued at approximately $249,886.86. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 8,260,183 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.31, for a total value of $291,667,061.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on QDEL. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.43.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

NASDAQ QDEL opened at $44.24 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.98 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.59 and a beta of 0.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. QuidelOrtho Co. has a twelve month low of $29.74 and a twelve month high of $71.57. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.58.

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