EMC Capital Management Takes $117,000 Position in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

EMC Capital Management purchased a new stake in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $117,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QDEL. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 23,691 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,746,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 2.2% in the first quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 14,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $681,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 2.5% in the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 12,127 shares of the company’s stock worth $581,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 5,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $406,000 after acquiring an additional 355 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 1.3% in the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 43,275 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,075,000 after acquiring an additional 560 shares during the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

QDEL stock traded up $0.01 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $42.01. The stock had a trading volume of 1,681,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,095,779. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.81 billion, a PE ratio of -1.59 and a beta of 0.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 0.81. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.46. QuidelOrtho Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.74 and a fifty-two week high of $84.79.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported ($0.07) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.22) by $0.15. The company had revenue of $637.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $613.51 million. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 65.60% and a positive return on equity of 3.59%. The company’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. Analysts predict that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other QuidelOrtho news, major shareholder Carlyle Group Inc. sold 164,877 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.11, for a total transaction of $6,448,339.47. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,128,748 shares in the company, valued at $357,025,334.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 1,895,740 shares of company stock valued at $67,672,787. 1.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, QuidelOrtho currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $57.60.

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.