Quidel Corp (NASDAQ:QDEL)

Could really take off... or drop like a rock. I'm betting on the take off though, above medium risk in my opinion. Potential is great though...

Quidel's sales in third-quarter fiscal 2011 soared 17% year over year led by its tests for infectious diseases.
And additional FDA approvals should help grow sales even more in 2012.

timattox and Kaceygirl

new screener test

This is one of my STARZ.
Here is the thought process on this STAR:
a) Divided rate over Zero
b) 3 Year Beta between -5 & +3
c) 15% + Insider ownership
d) No greater than -50% Growth rate for the last 3 years (tough last couple of years so good that insiders are still owning the stocks)
e) Current CAPS rating between 3 Stars & 5 Stars
Open to all Industries and Sectors screened this down to just 250 stocks. I like round numbers. 12 of them I already own through other screening tools. I tend to be somewhat conservative but looking for 3 things at this point in my investing:
1. Stability & Strength
2. Yield and Modest Growth
3. Strong Position within a sector regardless of whether the
entire sector is strong or not. Each sector has to perform to some degree for the whole world economy to function. I am looking for 5 or more years down the road, ROI, and Growth. Not looking for rockets, just stars. This is a Star!!

This is one of the most efficient companies on the market. Moreover, this company is a supplier for the medical group I work for. One day I asked our lead nurse why she orders from Quidel an and not BD. We mostly get our flu, pregnancy, strep, and urine tests from this company. She told me that their products were easy to obtain and use. After using them, I had to agree. There is tremendous up potential and this is a good way to get into healthcare. I have real money on this one.

New Leadership!

From my ValueGrowth screen

MFI screen, strong balance sheet ($3 cash per share net debt), CEO insider buy of $136k on 3/6/10.

Good stock to look into for the long term. Need to do more research on it for real money.

QDEL (Quidel Corp)
This company makes rapid diagnostic test for illnesses such as the flu. If this H1N1 swine flu continues to be a nasty problem, this is probably a company that will continue to have great results. Just last quarter alone, they grew revenues by a whopping 76% and earnings by a full 215% Paying 23 times trailing and 22 times forward earnings may seem like a high multiple, but in case this company continues to have such growth rates for any length of time, then that will prove to be quite a bargain anyways. Additionally, the average of the eight analyst estimates has increased by almost 14% over the past 90 days. I see no reason that these upward revisions would not continue as it is becoming more apparent the swine flu has become more and more of a worry.

Directly from their conference call on October 19th, management said this: "We had a very significant benefit during the quarter from our influenza test sales driven by a considerable increase in influenza like illness beginning in mid August", and "The emergence of the 2009 H1N1 virus, and an increase in a number of physicians using rapid flu tests to aid in the diagnosis of influenza, are the key contributing factors". Now, it's not as if these orders are going to just dry up because distributors and end users do not have a supply anywhere close to getting through this winter which is just starting. "With regard to influenza tests, we estimate that the majority of our domestic distributor inventories are at roughly three week supply of current end-user demand. We have also recently surveyed physicians, and based upon their feedback, believe their test on hand to be relatively low as well, with 75-percent of them expecting to reorder in the near term". Therefore we should probably expect QDEL to have a couple very nice quarters in a row.

One more little bright spot with this company, they have $65 million in cash (which has been growing year after year), and just $6 million in debt, therefore, I would assume a cash dividend or share buyback would be announced sometime within the foreseeable future.

RK

Pick on a dip

Good price currently and can hold until at least $24 for net gain. We are all good customers.

Could have lots of customers soon.

ibd

The wave of the future in health care diagnostics with rapid point of care results, no wait for transit to a lab and culture growth, eliminating the need for f/u visits/calls for results/answers.

Cramer pick that just lost it's mo

Flu season is turning out to be more intense. Qdel makes the flu tests.

Healthcare needs have been trending towards more in office tests and treatments for quite a while. This is one of those rare cases where the demand for the comapany's products will be able to drive it no matter what the market is doing. This one is well positioned in a growing market with no end in sight.