Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Monday.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on DGX. Barclays raised their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $154.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $157.00 to $182.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $160.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Baird R W raised shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $158.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $164.58.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

DGX opened at $161.18 on Monday. Quest Diagnostics has a 1 year low of $123.04 and a 1 year high of $162.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $154.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $147.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.99 billion, a PE ratio of 21.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.25.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 15.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Quest Diagnostics will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Quest Diagnostics news, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.05, for a total value of $2,889,207.75. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 34,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,382,661.05. This trade represents a 34.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,990 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.26, for a total transaction of $304,987.40. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,756,206.34. This trade represents a 14.80 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 22,520 shares of company stock valued at $3,472,728. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Quest Diagnostics

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of DGX. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in Quest Diagnostics during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Quest Diagnostics in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 77.5% during the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 229 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. TruNorth Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Quest Diagnostics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. 88.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.