Nov. 21, 2025
— Jeff Ward, Lehigh Valley News Briefs
OraSure shares continue to do what they do best: decline.
Stock in the Bethlehem-based maker of diagnostic kits dipped under $2.10 on Thursday, another 52-week low, before finishing at $2.11.
That came a day after Chief Financial Officer Kenneth McGrath addressed the Stephens Annual Investment Conference, discussing OraSure’s prospects.
McGrath indulged in less jargon than Chief Executive Carrie Eglinton Manner does. She likes to discuss “the three pillars of transformation.”
Tear them down. They aren’t working.
McGrath was more direct, although he did note Wednesday the “quadrant of innovation.”
Touche! Four elements of something tops three pillars of something.
Investment professionals and the institutional investors who control the majority of OraSure’s shares don’t fall for that stuff. Nobody does. Jargon is junk and be wary when people use it.
There was a comment from the audience that was smart and direct:
“Basically the market is saying what you’re investing in they don’t believe in or nobody cares.”
That person noted OraSure’s negative Enterprise Value (EV). The company has $216 million in cash, its market capitalization (price times number of shares outstanding) is about $154 million. The market values the company, net of cash, at negative $62 million.
NEGATIVE $62 MILLION. A negative enterprise value is not a good sign.
OraSure is known for its home diagnostic kits, such as InteliSwab for COVID-19 and OraQuick for HIV.
McGrath said the company is expanding into tests of urine, tests for sexually transmitted infections and proteomics, the study of protein.
He echoed Eglinton Manner’s comments last week about a return to growth in 2026.
OraSure was last growing during the COVID-19 epidemic, when federal contracts boosted revenue and federal dollars built the company’s Bethlehem Township “factory of the future.”
When the federal funds stopped flowing, the growth was over.
McGrath said OraSure is operating at about 30% of capacity, so increases in volume could boost gross margins without requiring more investment.
He also said the company, which has already cut back on staff, is “willing to make those tough decisions to adjust our cost structure as needed.”
That’s ominous. The company employed 501 people at the end of 2024, down from 638 a year earlier. Those numbers are from OraSure’s federal filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Year 2025 has been “a transition year,” McGrath said, as he acknowledged uncertainty about government funding for health care.
A transition? Right now it looks more like a disaster.
That uncertainty about government funding amounted to being “punched in the nose,” the CFO said.
The audio presentation is available on OraSure’s website.
McGrath also said “there is a good return on invested capital” in buying back OraSure shares (NASDAQ:OSUR).
I don’t get it. OraSure shares keep falling. I’d rather have cash than the stock, but OraSure spent about $5 million in the second and third quarters this year buying back shares that keep falling.
OraSure is an interesting small company that does some interesting things, and most of all employs local people. I’d like to see it thrive. Maybe it will.
In Eglinton Manner’s three-plus years as CEO, the stock has fallen, revenue has fallen, and OraSure has lost money. Perhaps that was inevitable, but investors don’t like seeing wealth destroyed.
At some point, the big firms that control the great majority of shares are going to get tired of this.
Watch that share price.
Lehigh Valley News Briefs 