Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Purchases New Shares in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated $DGX

Key Points

• Arrowstreet Capital initiated a Quest Diagnostics position of 11,468 shares valued at approximately $2.25 million. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company.
• Analysts raised several price targets following Quest Diagnostics’ quarterly results, but the consensus rating remains Hold with an average target of $235.31.
• Quest Diagnostics beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, reporting $3.12 in EPS and $3.04 billion in revenue, while maintaining annualized dividend payments of $3.44 per share.

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 11,468 shares of the medical research company's stock, valued at approximately $2,247,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 11.2% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 79,588 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $15,598,000 after acquiring an additional 8,025 shares during the last quarter. Davis R M Inc. purchased a new position in Quest Diagnostics in the first quarter valued at about $264,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 28.9% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,274 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $7,305,000 after purchasing an additional 8,362 shares in the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. increased its position in Quest Diagnostics by 372.2% in the 1st quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 8,500 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $1,666,000 after purchasing an additional 6,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Quest Diagnostics by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,504 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $2,451,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182 shares during the last quarter. 88.06% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Argus set a $260.00 price target on Quest Diagnostics in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $236.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Evercore set a $225.00 target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Quest Diagnostics has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $235.31.

Insider Activity at Quest Diagnostics

In other Quest Diagnostics news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 8,147 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $1,629,400.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 13,510 shares in the company, valued at $2,702,000. The trade was a 37.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO J. E. Davis sold 10,000 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.14, for a total transaction of $1,941,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 132,423 shares in the company, valued at $25,708,601.22. This represents a 7.02% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 19,747 shares of company stock worth $3,947,088 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company's stock.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of Quest Diagnostics stock opened at $234.13 on Wednesday. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 1 year low of $171.18 and a 1 year high of $240.13. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $208.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $200.45. The company has a market cap of $25.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.85, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The medical research company reported $3.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.82 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.97 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 9.18% and a return on equity of 16.01%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.62 EPS. Quest Diagnostics has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.050-11.250 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 11.15 EPS for the current year.

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 8th were given a dividend of $0.86 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, July 8th. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Quest Diagnostics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.52%.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics NYSE: DGX is a leading provider of diagnostic information services that supports clinical decision-making for patients, physicians and healthcare organizations. The company operates a network of clinical laboratories and patient service centers that perform a broad range of laboratory tests and diagnostic assays used in routine care, disease diagnosis, monitoring and screening.

Its services span core clinical laboratory testing, anatomic pathology, molecular and genomic diagnostics, infectious disease testing and toxicology.

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