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

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 2,023 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 595% compared to the average daily volume of 291 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

QDEL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Craig Hallum upgraded QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $57.00 in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $61.00 target price on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.83.

QuidelOrtho Stock Down 7.1 %

Shares of QDEL stock opened at $36.18 on Friday. QuidelOrtho has a twelve month low of $29.74 and a twelve month high of $75.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $42.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.45.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.55. The company had revenue of $727.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $642.16 million. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 66.25% and a positive return on equity of 4.24%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that QuidelOrtho will post 1.72 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of QDEL. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in QuidelOrtho by 1.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 920,703 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,996,000 after buying an additional 16,059 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 33.4% in the 3rd quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 38,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,749,000 after acquiring an additional 9,607 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho by 16.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,907,898 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,000,000 after purchasing an additional 275,522 shares during the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP boosted its position in QuidelOrtho by 6.9% during the third quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 151,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,887,000 after purchasing an additional 9,793 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in QuidelOrtho in the third quarter valued at about $34,320,000. 99.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.