Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Purchases 425 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 16.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,075 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 425 shares during the quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $464,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Citizens & Northern Corp raised its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 20.2% during the fourth quarter. Citizens & Northern Corp now owns 1,606 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $242,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 21,124 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $3,187,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 39,205 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,905,000 after purchasing an additional 816 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 19.0% in the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 21,381 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $3,510,000 after acquiring an additional 3,412 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 23.8% in the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 543,472 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $81,994,000 after buying an additional 104,495 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Quest Diagnostics

In other Quest Diagnostics news, EVP Catherine T. Doherty sold 535 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $169.71, for a total value of $90,794.85. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 71,356 shares in the company, valued at $12,109,826.76. The trade was a 0.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Mark E. Delaney sold 403 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.30, for a total transaction of $66,212.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $759,723.20. This represents a 8.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,792 shares of company stock valued at $465,998. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on DGX shares. Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $168.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Quest Diagnostics from $177.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $178.23.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE DGX opened at $171.54 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.10. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a one year low of $123.66 and a one year high of $176.44. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $158.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $156.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.31, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.91.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.04. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 8.80% and a return on equity of 15.07%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 9.7 EPS for the current year.

Quest Diagnostics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 7th will be issued a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 7th. This is a boost from Quest Diagnostics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.61%.

Quest Diagnostics Company Profile

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.