KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Acquires Shares of 13,146 QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 13,146 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $586,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in QDEL. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,320,000. Magnetar Financial LLC lifted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 207.8% in the fourth quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 877,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,084,000 after acquiring an additional 592,307 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 72.6% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,115,551 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,698,000 after acquiring an additional 469,132 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 16.9% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,907,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,000,000 after purchasing an additional 275,522 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,256,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,290,000 after purchasing an additional 274,633 shares during the period. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on QDEL. Citigroup upgraded shares of QuidelOrtho from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $44.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group increased their price objective on QuidelOrtho from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on QuidelOrtho in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.20.

QuidelOrtho Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of QDEL opened at $34.63 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.20. QuidelOrtho Co. has a one year low of $29.74 and a one year high of $49.45. The company has a market capitalization of $2.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.14 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.69.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.07 by ($0.44). QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 72.84% and a positive return on equity of 3.78%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that QuidelOrtho Co. 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.