AXQ Capital LP Purchases Shares of 9,370 QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

AXQ Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,370 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $417,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in QDEL. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 188.0% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,293 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 844 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 4th quarter worth approximately $74,000. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 122.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 1,895 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in QuidelOrtho in the third quarter worth about $238,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in QuidelOrtho during the third quarter valued at $262,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.00% of the company’s stock.

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

NASDAQ:QDEL opened at $35.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.19 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. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.70. QuidelOrtho Co. has a 1 year low of $29.74 and a 1 year high of $49.45.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.07 by ($0.44). QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 3.78% and a negative net margin of 72.84%. Equities analysts forecast that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 2.3 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

QDEL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. 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 note on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of QuidelOrtho from $43.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on QuidelOrtho in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com lowered QuidelOrtho from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 15th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $51.20.

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.