American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 469,132 Shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL)

American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL - Free Report) by 72.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,115,551 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 469,132 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 1.66% of QuidelOrtho worth $49,698,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in QuidelOrtho by 188.0% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,293 shares of the company's stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 844 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of QuidelOrtho during the 4th quarter valued at $74,000. KBC Group NV lifted its stake 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 bought a new position in QuidelOrtho in the 3rd quarter worth $238,000. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in QuidelOrtho by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,564 shares of the company's stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 816 shares in the last quarter. 99.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on 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 report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of QuidelOrtho from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $50.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of QuidelOrtho from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of QuidelOrtho from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 15th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $51.20.

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QuidelOrtho Price Performance

Shares of QDEL traded down $0.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $34.89. 614,620 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 954,652. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 1.22. The company has a market cap of $2.35 billion, a PE ratio of -1.15 and a beta of 0.10. QuidelOrtho Co. has a 52-week low of $29.74 and a 52-week high of $49.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $41.40.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.07 by ($0.44). QuidelOrtho had a negative net margin of 72.84% and a positive return on equity of 3.78%. On average, equities analysts predict that QuidelOrtho Co. will post 2.3 earnings per share 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.