Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) Receives $186.00 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $186.3125.

A number of research firms have recently commented on DGX. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $194.00 price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Wall Street Zen lowered Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 10th. Evercore ISI set a $185.00 price objective on Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $185.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Saturday, September 27th.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Patrick Plewman sold 1,975 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.00, for a total value of $365,375.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 15,269 shares in the company, valued at $2,824,765. The trade was a 11.45% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 2,210 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $375,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 8,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,436,500. This represents a 20.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 53,186 shares of company stock worth $9,647,471 in the last quarter. 8.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Quest Diagnostics

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the 1st quarter worth $388,724,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the 2nd quarter worth $238,122,000. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 256.5% in the 2nd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 1,072,721 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $193,090,000 after purchasing an additional 771,824 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,984,238 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,012,534,000 after purchasing an additional 493,960 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 23,296.2% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 444,996 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $75,293,000 after purchasing an additional 443,094 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

DGX stock opened at $179.07 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $179.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $175.03. The company has a market capitalization of $20.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.45, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.56. Quest Diagnostics has a 52-week low of $146.17 and a 52-week high of $191.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.73 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 15.24%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.35 earnings per share. Quest Diagnostics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 9.630-9.830 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Quest Diagnostics will post 9.7 EPS for the current year.

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Quest Diagnostics’s payout ratio is currently 38.32%.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated provides diagnostic testing and services in the United States and internationally. The company develops and delivers diagnostic information services, such as routine, non-routine and advanced clinical testing, anatomic pathology testing, and other diagnostic information services.