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

QuidelOrtho Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors bought 2,023 put options on the company. This is an increase of 595% compared to the typical daily volume of 291 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On QuidelOrtho

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of QDEL. Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of QuidelOrtho in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of QuidelOrtho by 907.3% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 826 shares of the company's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 744 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of QuidelOrtho by 27.0% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,778 shares of the company's stock valued at $59,000 after acquiring an additional 378 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in QuidelOrtho in the first quarter valued at about $86,000. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new position in QuidelOrtho in the second quarter worth about $102,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.00% of the company's stock.

QuidelOrtho Stock Down 7.1 %

Shares of QDEL traded down $2.78 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $36.18. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,150,023 shares, compared to its average volume of 970,605. The company has a 50 day moving average of $42.17 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.47. QuidelOrtho has a 1-year low of $29.74 and a 1-year high of $75.86. The firm has a market cap of $2.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.30 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.

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.55. QuidelOrtho had a positive return on equity of 4.24% and a negative net margin of 66.25%. The business 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 company earned $0.90 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that QuidelOrtho will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

QDEL has been the subject of several analyst reports. 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. Craig Hallum raised shares of QuidelOrtho from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of QuidelOrtho in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, QuidelOrtho currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $58.83.

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.