Healthcare diagnostics company QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales falling 10.5% year on year to $619.8 million. The company’s full-year revenue guidance of $2.73 billion at the midpoint came in 0.8% below analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP loss of $0.04 per share was significantly below analysts’ consensus estimates.
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QuidelOrtho (QDEL) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $619.8 million vs analyst estimates of $668.7 million (10.5% year-on-year decline, 7.3% miss)
- Adjusted EPS: -$0.04 vs analyst estimates of $0.42 (significant miss)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $108.7 million vs analyst estimates of $148.4 million (17.5% margin, 26.7% miss)
- The company dropped its revenue guidance for the full year to $2.73 billion at the midpoint from $2.8 billion, a 2.7% decrease
- Management lowered its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $1.90 at the midpoint, a 14% decrease
- EBITDA guidance for the full year is $622.5 million at the midpoint, below analyst estimates of $642.8 million
- Operating Margin: -5.1%, down from 4.7% in the same quarter last year
- Constant Currency Revenue fell 12.6% year on year (-1.1% in the same quarter last year)
- Market Capitalization: $845.7 million
"Our first quarter results were in line with our preliminary revenue announcement and reflected a significantly weaker respiratory season and business disruption in China and the Middle East," said Brian J. Blaser, President and Chief Executive Officer of QuidelOrtho.
Company Overview
Born from the 2022 merger of Quidel and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) develops and manufactures diagnostic testing solutions for healthcare providers, from rapid point-of-care tests to complex laboratory instruments and systems.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul. Over the last five years, QuidelOrtho’s demand was weak and its revenue declined by 6.5% per year. This was below our standards and is a sign of poor business quality.
We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within healthcare, a half-decade historical view may miss recent innovations or disruptive industry trends. QuidelOrtho’s annualized revenue declines of 3.7% over the last two years suggest its demand continued shrinking. 
We can dig further into the company’s sales dynamics by analyzing its constant currency revenue, which excludes currency movements that are outside their control and not indicative of demand. Over the last two years, its constant currency sales averaged 3.4% year-on-year declines. Because this number aligns with its reported revenue growth, we can see that foreign exchange has not had a meaningful impact on topline. 
This quarter, QuidelOrtho missed Wall Street’s estimates and reported a rather uninspiring 10.5% year-on-year revenue decline, generating $619.8 million of revenue.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.4% over the next 12 months, an improvement versus the last two years. This projection is above the sector average and implies its newer products and services will catalyze better top-line performance.
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Adjusted Operating Margin
Adjusted operating margin is one of the best measures of profitability because it tells us how much money a company takes home after subtracting all core expenses, like marketing and R&D. It also removes various one-time costs to paint a better picture of normalized profits.
QuidelOrtho has been an efficient company over the last five years. It was one of the more profitable businesses in the healthcare sector, boasting an average adjusted operating margin of 24.4%.
Analyzing the trend in its profitability, QuidelOrtho’s adjusted operating margin decreased by 50.5 percentage points over the last five years. The company’s two-year trajectory also shows it failed to get its profitability back to the peak as its margin fell by 4.9 percentage points. This performance was poor no matter how you look at it - it shows its expenses were rising and it couldn’t pass those costs onto its customers.
This quarter, QuidelOrtho generated an adjusted operating margin profit margin of negative 5.1%, down 20.7 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses increased relative to its revenue.
Earnings Per Share
Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.
Sadly for QuidelOrtho, its EPS declined by 43.4% annually over the last five years, more than its revenue. This tells us the company struggled because its fixed cost base made it difficult to adjust to shrinking demand.
We can take a deeper look into QuidelOrtho’s earnings to better understand the drivers of its performance. As we mentioned earlier, QuidelOrtho’s adjusted operating margin declined by 50.5 percentage points over the last five years. Its share count also grew by 56.7%, meaning the company not only became less efficient with its operating expenses but also diluted its shareholders. 
In Q1, QuidelOrtho reported adjusted EPS of negative $0.04, down from $0.74 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects QuidelOrtho’s full-year EPS of $1.34 to grow 69.6%.
Key Takeaways from QuidelOrtho’s Q1 Results
We struggled to find many positives in these results. Its full-year EPS guidance missed and its revenue fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this quarter could have been better. The stock traded down 3.7% to $11.22 immediately after reporting.
The latest quarter from QuidelOrtho’s wasn’t that good. One earnings report doesn’t define a company’s quality, though, so let’s explore whether the stock is a buy at the current price. We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).