Analysts Anticipate Quidel Co. (QDEL) Will Announce Quarterly Sales of $102.15 Million

Analysts forecast that Quidel Co. (NASDAQ:QDEL) will post $102.15 million in sales for the current fiscal quarter, according to Zacks Investment Research. Three analysts have issued estimates for Quidel’s earnings, with the highest sales estimate coming in at $102.90 million and the lowest estimate coming in at $101.76 million. Quidel posted sales of $38.27 million during the same quarter last year, which suggests a positive year-over-year growth rate of 166.9%. The company is scheduled to announce its next earnings results on Wednesday, July 25th.

According to Zacks, analysts expect that Quidel will report full-year sales of $517.59 million for the current financial year, with estimates ranging from $511.70 million to $521.77 million. For the next year, analysts expect that the firm will post sales of $522.09 million per share, with estimates ranging from $519.76 million to $525.40 million. Zacks Investment Research’s sales averages are a mean average based on a survey of sell-side research analysts that follow Quidel.

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Quidel (NASDAQ:QDEL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 8th. The company reported $1.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.28. The business had revenue of $169.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $151.50 million. Quidel had a return on equity of 12.54% and a net margin of 3.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 129.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on QDEL shares. Raymond James raised Quidel from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $47.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 8th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Quidel from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Craig Hallum initiated coverage on shares of Quidel in a report on Monday, March 26th. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Quidel from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 8th. Finally, William Blair reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Quidel in a report on Friday, April 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Quidel has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.29.

In other Quidel news, CEO Douglas C. Bryant sold 36,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.09, for a total value of $2,019,240.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 306,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,181,096.17. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Douglas C. Bryant sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.51, for a total transaction of $618,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 306,313 shares in the company, valued at $15,778,182.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 201,006 shares of company stock worth $11,728,499 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 16.70% of the company’s stock.

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of QDEL. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Quidel by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. now owns 192,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,352,000 after purchasing an additional 10,843 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in Quidel in the fourth quarter valued at $421,000. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in Quidel by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 59,799 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,592,000 after purchasing an additional 1,696 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Quidel in the fourth quarter valued at $2,827,000. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in Quidel by 28.2% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 49,952 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,165,000 after purchasing an additional 10,977 shares during the last quarter. 90.27% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Shares of Quidel traded up $0.10, reaching $68.37, during trading hours on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. 12,490 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 329,686. The company has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a PE ratio of -975.29, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Quidel has a fifty-two week low of $25.87 and a fifty-two week high of $70.28.

Quidel Company Profile

Quidel Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets diagnostic testing solutions for applications in infectious diseases, cardiology, thyroid, women's and general health, eye health, gastrointestinal diseases, and toxicology. The company offers Sofia and Sofia 2 fluorescent immunoassay systems; QuickVue, a lateral flow immunoassay products; and InflammaDry and AdenoPlus products point-of-care products for the detection of infectious and inflammatory diseases and conditions of the eye.

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3 Growth Stocks That Could Put Facebook's Returns to Shame

Since its initial public offering in 2012, Facebook has changed the world and made impressive progress on its goal of connecting the world. Today, the company counts roughly 2.2 billion monthly active users across its platforms. The social network has also delivered impressive returns for shareholders, with the stock up more than 400% since market close on the day of the company's IPO.

Facebook still has big opportunities ahead, but its massive size suggests it will have a more difficult time delivering relative growth going forward. With that in mind, three Motley Fool investors have identified Paycom Software (NYSE:PAYC), iQiyi (NASDAQ:IQ), and SunPower (NASDAQ:SPWR) as stocks that could put Facebook's returns to shame.

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Aiming to be No. 1

Matt DiLallo�(Paycom):�Online payroll company Paycom has one goal: overtake ADP�(NASDAQ:ADP) as the No. 1 payroll company in the country. Its strategy is to steadily win customers over to its cloud-based human resources software solution by not just providing them with a better payroll services alternative to their current provider but a return on their investment in Paycom's software.

Because of the company's client-focused approach, it has grown at a brisk pace since going public in 2014, with revenue up nearly 270%. However, even with all that growth, Paycom has only taken about 2% to 3% of its addressable market, leaving it a long way to go before it catches ADP. To put the revenue potential in perspective, ADP has hauled in more than $13 billion of revenue over the past 12 months while Paycom's sales have tallied less than $500 million over that time frame. As those numbers show, the company has lots of running room in the coming years as it steadily takes more market share.

Paycom's growth since its IPO has already put Facebook's returns to shame. Overal, the stock is up more than 550% since then while shares of the social media giant are�only up about 200% over that time frame. However, with a massive addressable market left to capture, Paycom appears to have significant upside ahead, which positions it to continue outpacing Facebook's returns in the coming years.

A bet on the Chinese entertainment industry

Keith Noonan�(iQiyi):�Chinese streaming and multimedia company iQiyi had its initial public offering at the end of March, and the stock has already nearly doubled.�I purchased shares shortly after its IPO and have been very pleased with the company's performance so far, but I still see big things ahead and don't plan on selling anytime soon.�

CEO Tim Gong Yu recently said that rather than being "the Netflix of China," he would rather his company be the country's Disney.�That's a tall order, but big investments in original content prove it's serious about this goal, and recent�awards nominations for one of its internally produced films suggest it's making real progress on that crucial front.

The business is valued at roughly $29 billion today, but with the backdrop of the world's largest streaming market and rapid economic growth that's leading to big increases in the size of the country's middle class and per-household discretionary spending, I think the company still trades at a discount compared to its long-term potential.�While most of the attention is focused on what the company is doing in the streaming-video space, iQiyi also has big growth opportunities in video games and other multimedia content.

The company has already released a 4K virtual reality headset and is in the process of developing new film, television, and game content to support the emerging display format. The VR bets may take a while to pay off from a pure sales and profit perspective, but iQiyi's broader service ecosystem already counts a user base of more than 400 million people, which should help the company tap into for-pay video, gaming, and other new content opportunities.

The solar company built to weather the storm

Travis Hoium (SunPower): Solar stocks have been all over the map for the last two years as demand for solar projects rises and falls with the whims of different governments around the world. Lately, the news has been mostly bad as the U.S. has put tariffs on solar imports and China has cut its solar incentives.�

One company that's built to withstand the solar industry's volatility is SunPower, manufacturer of the most efficient solar panels on the market. SunPower has a differentiated product in the residential and commercial market that commands a premium price and is therefore less impacted by the swings of commodity solar panels. The company has acquired one of the largest domestic solar manufacturing plants in an effort to corner U.S. residential and commercial markets and is expanding its energy storage business to provide a full-service solution to customers.�

SunPower sells itself as a premium supplier in residential and commercial markets, insulating it from an expected drop in solar panel prices as the year goes on, but in the utility-scale solar market, the company is well positioned to take advantage of falling commodity prices. SunPower's P-Series solar panel is built with commodity solar cells that are cut and shingled when they're assembled to make a panel that's slightly more efficient than traditional assembly processes. Since SunPower is buying commodity cells, it will be able to lower its manufacturing costs and ultimately lower the cost of projects that compete with fossil fuels around the world.�

Financially, SunPower is starting to turn its business around. The company has lost $833 million in the past year as asset sales and legacy contracts have hit the bottom line. But gross margins are improving and were 18.6% and 6.3% respectively for residential and commercial solar sales. If margin improvement continues and the utility solar business can start generating a profit, we could see SunPower become the biggest solar manufacturer in the world by revenue. Given the company's market cap of just $1.1 billion, there's the potential this is a highly undervalued growth stock with the potential to put Facebook's returns to shame long term.�