Legal & General Group Plc Acquires New Stake in QuidelOrtho Corporation $QDEL

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho Corporation (NASDAQ:QDEL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 162,798 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,851,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.24% of QuidelOrtho at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho in the second quarter worth $499,000. Paradigm Capital Management Inc. NY bought a new position in QuidelOrtho in the 2nd quarter worth about $44,168,000. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in QuidelOrtho during the 2nd quarter valued at about $419,000. Allworth Financial LP bought a new stake in QuidelOrtho during the 2nd quarter valued at about $56,000. Finally, Tejara Capital Ltd purchased a new position in QuidelOrtho in the second quarter worth about $2,275,000. 99.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on QDEL shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of QuidelOrtho from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on QuidelOrtho from $13.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. Zacks Research lowered QuidelOrtho from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, QuidelOrtho currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $13.62.

QuidelOrtho Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ QDEL opened at $13.97 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $16.05 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.58. QuidelOrtho Corporation has a 52-week low of $9.92 and a 52-week high of $35.58. The company has a market cap of $957.99 million, a PE ratio of -0.91 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.43.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $630.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $618.72 million. QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 39.20% and a positive return on equity of 4.88%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.12 earnings per share. QuidelOrtho has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.650-0.900 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that QuidelOrtho Corporation will post 0.75 EPS for the current year.

QuidelOrtho Company Profile

QuidelOrtho is a global diagnostics company formed through the merger of Quidel Corporation and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. The combined entity develops, manufactures and markets a broad portfolio of rapid and high-throughput diagnostic solutions across immunoassay, molecular diagnostics and transfusion medicine. Its offerings span point-of-care platforms for acute care testing as well as large-scale automated systems designed for clinical laboratories and blood banks.

The company’s product range includes rapid antigen and antibody tests for infectious diseases, molecular assays utilizing nucleic acid amplification technology, and integrated immunodiagnostic analyzers.