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

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 2,023 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 595% compared to the typical daily volume of 291 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on QDEL shares. Craig Hallum raised shares of QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $61.00 target price on shares of QuidelOrtho in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group initiated coverage on QuidelOrtho in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $58.83.

Institutional Trading of QuidelOrtho

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of QuidelOrtho in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 907.3% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 744 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised 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 worth $59,000 after buying an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the first quarter valued at $86,000. Finally, EMC Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the first quarter valued at $117,000. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

NASDAQ QDEL traded down $2.45 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $36.51. The company had a trading volume of 306,776 shares, compared to its average volume of 966,618. QuidelOrtho has a fifty-two week low of $29.74 and a fifty-two week high of $75.86. The firm has a market cap of $2.46 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.29 and a beta of 0.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.48.

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

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.