Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.04 EPS

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) announced its earnings results on Tuesday. The medical research company reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.31 by $0.04, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $2.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 8.99% and a return on equity of 15.49%. Quest Diagnostics’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. Quest Diagnostics updated its FY 2024 guidance to 8.800-9.000 EPS and its FY24 guidance to $8.80-9.00 EPS.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:DGX opened at $143.91 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. Quest Diagnostics has a 12-month low of $119.59 and a 12-month high of $150.59. The business has a 50 day moving average of $141.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $134.39. The company has a market capitalization of $15.99 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37, a PEG ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 0.89.

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, July 8th were issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 8th. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.38%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on DGX shares. Barclays raised their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $138.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Citigroup upgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $145.00 to $165.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $139.00 to $146.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $150.00 to $158.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $149.38.

Insider Transactions at Quest Diagnostics

In related news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,760 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total value of $246,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,435 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,880,900. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

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.