What Caught Our Attention in the Investment World? – Week of November 9-13, 2020

By Kuldip K. Ambastha

Quidel Corporation (QDEL) is an American company in the diagnostic healthcare product space. Its offerings are sold worldwide. On Friday, May 8, 2020, the company received emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 antigen test from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (Emergency use authorization is a new public health testing category created within the current coronavirus pandemic era.) On Monday, November 9, 2020, the shares of Quidel Corporation had a significant -28.1% loss. That trading day saw a big spike in daily volume of buy and sell activity (4.6 million shares traded on the day, versus the 1.2 million shares 90-day average ending Friday. November 13, 2020).

Executives have been buying and selling the stock over time in trading activity that has been noticed by other parties. In the last three months, corporate insiders have bought 17,300 shares (valued at $3.3 million) and sold 20,353 shares (valued at $5.5 million). The company’s market capitalization is $8.4 billion. While $3.3 million and $5.5 million are small numbers compared with $8.4 billion, the net selling activity of corporate insiders still seems to be a cause for concern in the capital markets along with several upgrades and downgrades of the stock seen from equity research professionals.

Keywords – Quidel Corporation, Quidel Corp., Quidel, QDEL, diagnostic, healthcare, products, Food and Drug Administration, FDA, COVID-19, coronavirus, pandemic, public health, emergency use authorization, corporate insiders, buy, sell, upgrades, downgrades, equity research.

Disclosure – The principals and clients of Ambastha Financial LLC have no positions in QDEL.

Disclaimer – No recommendations are being made via this post. Past performance is not an indicator of future performance. As an investor, you should do your own research and seek professional advice from a Registered Investment Adviser (RIA). You can lose money by investing in stocks and other instruments. Ambastha Financial LLC does not assume any responsibility (legal or otherwise) for any losses that may occur as a result of actions taken based on this post. All content copyrighted © 2020 – Ambastha Financial LLC.

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