QuidelOrtho Corporation (QDEL) Presents at Citi Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2025 Transcript

Patrick Donnelly
Citigroup Inc., Research Division

We can look to get started. Thank you for joining us. I’m Patrick Donnelly, the tools and diagnostics analyst here at Citi. Happy to have Joe Busky, here from Quidel. Thanks for being here, Joe. Thanks for coming down.

Maybe just chat a little bit. I was a little surprised by the stock reaction after 3Q. Any interesting feedback you heard from investors or the pushback on the quarter? Again, the sell-off was pretty steep. It’s bounced back nicely. And then again, you guys did some insider purchases, which was good to see. But what was the feedback you heard from investors kind of post the quarter?

Joseph Busky
Chief Financial Officer

Well, first of all, by the way, thanks for having me here, Patrick. Good to see you.

Patrick Donnelly
Citigroup Inc., Research Division

Likewise.

Joseph Busky
Chief Financial Officer

We were perplexed as a lot of people were with the reaction. There’s obviously a lot of puts and takes that go into stock price going up or down. But based on what we’ve learned, it seems it’s a combination of a bunch of things, a fairly high short interest before the earnings call, some increased put option exposure prior to the earnings call, some tax loss selling, some quant fund activity in a bit of a perfect storm. But — and there were 2 areas that were — that we’ve heard that subsequent to the call that potentially people questioned, 1 was cash — the cash flow timing related to the ERP conversions. And one was the when we narrowed the guidance and it pushes out a Q4 that’s got slightly lower margin