Analysts Set Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) Target Price at $178.23

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $178.38.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $166.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $177.00 to $178.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $185.00 target price (up previously from $175.00) on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Leerink Partnrs raised shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Quest Diagnostics news, SVP Michael E. Prevoznik sold 4,643 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.00, for a total transaction of $789,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 38,117 shares in the company, valued at $6,479,890. The trade was a 10.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Mark E. Delaney sold 403 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.30, for a total value of $66,212.90. Following the completion of the sale, 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. Insiders have sold 14,157 shares of company stock worth $2,423,755 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Quest Diagnostics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sierra Ocean LLC bought a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 340.4% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 251 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 194 shares during the last quarter. First Financial Corp IN acquired a new stake in Quest Diagnostics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics during the fourth quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Global Trust Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. 88.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

Shares of DGX opened at $166.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $158.53. Quest Diagnostics has a 1-year low of $125.42 and a 1-year high of $178.87. The company has a market cap of $18.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.62, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.92.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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, research analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics will post 9.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 21st. Investors of record on Monday, April 7th will be paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 7th. This is an increase from Quest Diagnostics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Quest Diagnostics’s payout ratio 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.