QDEL Q1 Earnings Call: Cost Savings and Tariff Mitigation Anchor 2025 Outlook
Is now the time to buy QDEL? Find out in our full research report (it's free).
Revenue: $692.8 million vs analyst estimates of $689.8 million (2.6% year-on-year decline, in line)
Adjusted EPS: $0.74 vs analyst estimates of $0.59 (24.9% beat)
Adjusted EBITDA: $159.8 million vs analyst estimates of $149.4 million (23.1% margin, 7% beat)
The company reconfirmed its revenue guidance for the full year of $2.71 billion at the midpoint
Management reiterated its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance of $2.32 at the midpoint
EBITDA guidance for the full year is $595 million at the midpoint, in line with analyst expectations
Operating Margin: 4.7%, up from -247% in the same quarter last year
Market Capitalization: $2.09 billion
QuidelOrtho's first quarter results were shaped by growth in its core laboratories segment, stable immunohematology performance, and a robust flu testing season, offset by lower COVID-related and donor screening revenues. CEO Brian Blaser highlighted that the labs business, now over half of total revenue, delivered 7% year-over-year growth, while immunohematology grew 4%. Blaser credited the company's ongoing cost reduction initiatives—including staffing cuts and procurement efficiencies—for a 450 basis point improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin. The company also benefited from increased sales of its COVID-flu combination tests, which Blaser described as showing 'very stable performance,' helping mitigate the broader decline in COVID-only testing volumes. Management characterized the quarter as further evidence that its 2024 operational changes are positively impacting profitability and business stability.
Looking ahead, QuidelOrtho's management sees its narrowed set of strategic priorities—expanding platform content, margin improvement, and targeted commercial execution—as key drivers for 2025. Blaser emphasized the company's plans to fully offset anticipated tariff headwinds, noting, 'We believe the incremental actions we are taking are sufficient to fully offset the tariff impacts as they stand today.' The company expects recurring revenues from consumables to underpin stability, supported by a diversified manufacturing footprint. CFO Joe Busky added that visibility into labs and immunohematology growth in China supports a mid- to high-single-digit outlook for that market, assuming the tariff environment remains unchanged. Management remains focused on delivering cost savings and maintaining profitability targets, while monitoring for potential shifts in COVID and flu testing demand.
Management attributed the quarter's performance to solid growth in non-COVID segments, benefits from prior cost-reduction actions, and strong execution in the labs and flu testing businesses.
Labs business momentum: Core laboratories led growth, with consistent demand in clinical chemistry and immunoassay testing, representing over half of Q1 revenue.
Immunohematology stability: The immunohematology segment maintained its global leadership with steady 4% growth, particularly benefiting from strength in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region.
Flu and combo testing resilience: Sales of flu tests and the COVID-flu combination test remained strong, offsetting the expected decline in pure COVID testing. The durability of the combo product contributed to recurring revenue streams.
Cost savings initiatives: Operational changes—including staff reductions, procurement efficiencies, and expense controls—were credited with expanding non-GAAP margins and reducing operating costs. Management expects further incremental savings in 2025.
Tariff mitigation efforts: The company outlined a multi-pronged strategy to counter expected $30–40 million tariff headwinds. Actions include re-sourcing materials, adjusting supply chains, selective pricing, and ongoing inventory repositioning. Management stated these steps are expected to fully neutralize tariff effects on financial results.
QuidelOrtho's outlook for 2025 is anchored by recurring revenue growth in core segments, ongoing cost control, and strategies to manage external headwinds such as tariffs.
Recurring consumables revenue: Management highlighted that over 90% of sales stem from consumables, providing a stable revenue foundation less susceptible to one-time instrument sales volatility. The company expects this model to drive consistent growth, especially in labs and immunohematology.
Cost discipline and savings: The company is on track to realize the remainder of its $100 million annualized cost savings program, with additional procurement and cash flow initiatives expected to deliver a further $30–50 million in savings during 2025. These efforts are intended to support margin expansion even as the company faces external cost pressures.
Tariff and macro environment management: Expected tariff headwinds are being addressed through supply chain adjustments, selective price increases, and cost reductions. Management expressed confidence that these measures will allow QuidelOrtho to maintain its guidance even if the tariff situation evolves, but noted that ongoing monitoring is required due to the dynamic nature of global trade policy.
In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will be watching (1) the pace at which cost savings and procurement initiatives translate into sustained margin gains, (2) the impact of tariff mitigation actions on both supply chain flexibility and pricing power, and (3) any changes in demand for respiratory testing—particularly the COVID-flu combination test. Progress on Savanna respiratory panel submission and broader product pipeline developments will also serve as key signposts for tracking execution.
QuidelOrtho currently trades at a forward P/E ratio of 12.1×. Is the company at an inflection point that warrants a buy or sell? The answer lies in our full research report (it's free).
Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election sent major indices to all-time highs, but stocks have retraced as investors debate the health of the economy and the potential impact of tariffs.
While this leaves much uncertainty around 2025, a few companies are poised for long-term gains regardless of the political or macroeconomic climate, like our Top 5 Strong Momentum Stocks for this week. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 183% over the last five years (as of March 31st 2025).
Stocks that made our list in 2020 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,545% between March 2020 and March 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Kadant (+351% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Editorial: Saving lives no more — RFK risks us all in targeting mRNA vaccine research
Showing that his loyalty to his own anti-vax mentality is greater than his loyalty to President Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the dangerous quack atop the Department of Health and Human Services, has announced that he will be rescinding a half billion dollars in grants and contracts for the development of mRNA technology and vaccines. It was mRNA that was key to both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna COVID vaccines that were created under Trump in his first term, but RFK does not like life-saving vaccines and so he's pulling the plug. Part of the problem with policymaking at the level of the federal government is that the impacts are often too large, too long-winded, too abstract to really be able to nearly encompass their full breadth, particularly for busy people who have their own immediate concerns to worry about. In this case, though, we can point to very clear, very grim and almost unavoidable repercussions directly caused by this decision: many people worldwide — including in the United States — will die deaths that could have been prevented. Setting aside all of the jargon, at its most basic level a vaccine is about allowing the body to ward off or survive pathogens that would otherwise be extremely dangerous and debilitating or kill a person outright. The model itself is far from new; inoculations in some form of another, including the basic utilization of a dead virus to create antibodies that can attack a live one, date back centuries. What's mainly changed since then is that we have only advanced our understanding and technology to keep infectious diseases from running rampant in our society. One such technological leap was the mRNA process, an innovation so significant that its pioneers won the Nobel prize. The effectiveness and the safety of this process has been well-documented in research settings, but we don't even have to parse the studies to know this because we all collectively lived it. As Trump's Operation Warp Speed produced, the first and most widespread COVID inoculations were mRNA-based vaccines, which enabled us to blunt the rampaging pandemic and much more quickly return our society to a semblance of normalcy. Those COVID vaccines have already been synthesized, but the real issue here are the ones that haven't, or even the inoculations for viruses that we have not even identified or think to be a threat today. Whether we like it or not, our relationship to infectious diseases is something akin to an arms race, in which we are constantly trying to counteract pathogens that, by dint of evolution, are constantly finding ways to elude our defenses and sicken us. We've stayed largely on top of this arms race over the last six decades or so in particular because of constant efforts that have developed sophisticated tools to fight back, including mRNA. A disarmament here for no other reason than ideologically-driven conspiracy that drives Bobby Kennedy is going to mean that we give the diseases an opening, which they will no doubt exploit to sicken and kill us. There are quite simply no two ways about it, and any pause in the research could have dire consequences, even if it is reversed later. Ongoing and sometimes multimonth or even multiyear projects will lose funding and might have to be shut down, with all their efforts wasted. There's no way to really put the genie back in the bottle so we have to stop it in the first place, which means RFK must be fired immediately or impeached and removed by Congress. Many lives hang in the balance. _____
UPI
3 hours ago
- UPI
CDC director: Misinformation 'lead to deadly consequence" in Atlanta
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta was attacked by a gunman on Friday. File Photo by Erike S. Lesser/EPA Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told employees about the dangers of misinformation, four days after a suspected gunman shot at the agency's headquarters in Atlanta, claiming the COVID-19 vaccine made him sick. On Tuesday, Susan Monarez met with staffers virtually and then sent a note to all 10,000 employees nationwide, obtained by ABC News. Staffers at the headquarters have been working remotely since the attack on Friday. "The dangers of misinformation and its promulgation has now led to deadly consequences," she wrote. "I will work to restore trust in public health to those who have lost it -- through science, evidence and clarity of purpose. I will need your help." The comments were slightly different than those during her staff meeting in which she said: "Public health should never be under attack. We know that misinformation can be dangerous." She said the health agency can rebuild trust with "rational evidence-based discourse" with "compassion and understanding." Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania, told NBC News: "The irony is her boss is the biggest spreader of misinformation." Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is secretary of the Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC. In 2021, during the pandemic, Kennedy described the shot as the "deadliest vaccine ever made" after he filed a citizens' petition requesting that the Food and Drug Administration end emergency authorization. Last week, Kennedy announced that HHS was moving to terminate $500 million in contracts to develop vaccines using mRNA technology, which was used to develop the COVID-19 vaccine in 2020. "After reviewing the science and consulting top experts at NIH [National Institutes of Health] and FDA, HHS has determined that mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses," The American Medical Association backs mRNA vaccine research and the CDC still says on its website: "During the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines underwent the most intensive safety analysis in U.S. history." Health officials have denounced skepticism of the research, noting the COVID-19 vaccine saved millions of lives in the United States. "The Covid pandemic showed us what's possible when science moves fast," Rick Bright, who directed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development from 2016 to 2020, told NBC News. "Dismantling that momentum now is like disbanding the fire department because the fire's out." As head of the HHS, he has updated COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for the fall to be restricted to older adults and those with underlying health conditions. He also doesn't want children to get the shots. On Monday, Kennedy toured the CDC campus in Atlanta and met with the widow of the one person slain in the attack, DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose. He toured with Monarez and HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O'Neill. "He offered his deepest condolences and reaffirmed the agency's commitment to honoring officer Rose's bravery, sacrifice and service to the nation," HHS said. Today I traveled to Atlanta in the wake of the heartbreaking shooting at the CDC's Roybal Campus that took the life of DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose. @POTUS and the entire administration are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. We stand with Officer Rose's wife, his two... Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) August 11, 2025 Since the attack, the union representing CDC workers condemned the lack of support from top officials. "This leadership is critical in reinforcing public trust and ensuring that accurate, science-based information prevails," the union said Sunday. "This condemnation is necessary to help prevent violence against scientists that may be incited by such disinformation." The American Federation of Government Employees Local 2883, which represents more than 2,000 CDC workers, said in a statement Sunday that the attack "was not random and it compounds months of mistreatment, neglect and vilification that CDC staff have endured." The union also said: "The deliberate targeting of CDC through this violent act is deeply disturbing, completely unacceptable and an attack on every public servant." The father of the suspected gunman, 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White, reportedly told authorities he targeted the CDC over health problems he blamed on the COVID-19 vaccine. He said the shot made him depressed and suicidal. He was fatally shot by police after around 200 bullets struck the six buildings. Five firearms were recovered. "All indications are that this was an isolated event involving one individual," Jeff Williams, the deputy secretary of the CDC's Office of Safety, Security and Asset Management, said during the staff meeting Tuesday.
Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
BP,Shel,CVX: Oil Stocks Rise Despite ‘Bloated' Supply Threatening Prices
Oil stocks rose today despite a hit to prices on warnings of a supply glut by the end of the year. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. The price of Brent Crude was down around 1.3% in mid-trading after a warning from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that OPEC nations like Saudi Arabia were ready to switch on the taps despite weakening global demand. Oil Collision The IEA warned that this supply and demand imbalance would collide in the last three months of the year hurting prices. Despite this, the BP (BP) share price rose 0.13%, Shell (SHEL) was up 0.55% and Chevron (CVX), was also up 0.5%. The IEA cut its forecast for global demand growth this year to 680,000 barrels a day. This is a third lower than its prediction in January this year and the weakest pace since 2009 apart from the Covid 2019 slump. The main issue with demand is the continued global geopolitical uncertainty and it is particularly notable in China, India and Brazil. All three of these countries, of course, are in the firing line for hefty tariff hikes from President Trump. This weakening in appetite comes as the OPEC oil cartel looks to lift production. The IEA forecasts that supply will grow by 2.5 million barrels a day this year, a third higher than previous estimations. As can be seen above this uncertainty has led to huge volatility in the oil price this year. Supply Puzzle OPEC, however, made its own predictions today – and they didn't match those from the IEA. It believes that oil demand will climb by 1.38 million barrels of oil a day in 2026, double the forecast from the IEA. There is also added confusion given figures from U.S. Energy Information Administration, which suggests that over 300 million barrels of oil have been put into storage so far this year, with the IEA declaring that it is actually 225 million barrels. Analysts warn this uncertainty is making it harder to fully price in the impact of oversupply making the sector even more tricky for investors. 'The peak of the supply glut will be at the end of 2026, according to the IEA, which could keep a lid on the oil price for the long term,' said Kathleen Brooks of XTB. 'The discussions between President Trump and President Putin on Friday could also be weighing on the oil price. If they do find a solution to the war in Ukraine, then it could exacerbate the supply glut even further, and the bias could be to the downside for the oil price as we lead up to the talks.' Is BP a Good Stock to Buy Now? On TipRanks, BP has a Moderate Buy consensus based on 4 Buy and 6 Hold ratings. Its highest price target is $40. BP stock's consensus price target is $34.75, implying a 2% upside.
