767,030 Shares in QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) Bought by Norges Bank

Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 767,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,171,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of QDEL. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 188.0% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,000 after buying an additional 844 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management bought a new position in QuidelOrtho in the fourth quarter worth about $74,000. KBC Group NV boosted its stake in QuidelOrtho by 122.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,437 shares of the company’s stock valued at $153,000 after acquiring an additional 1,895 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of QuidelOrtho during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $221,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $238,000. 99.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

QuidelOrtho Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QDEL opened at $28.13 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.98. The stock has a market cap of $1.90 billion, a P/E ratio of -0.93 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. QuidelOrtho Co. has a fifty-two week low of $26.84 and a fifty-two week high of $49.45.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 expect that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 2.3 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.