Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Acquires 3,785 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated $DGX

Key Points

• Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC has increased its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 31.1%, acquiring an additional 3,785 shares, bringing their total holdings to 15,949 shares valued at approximately $2.86 million.
• Analysts have set a consensus price target of $186.81 for Quest Diagnostics with ratings ranging from "Strong Buy" to "Hold," indicating mixed but generally positive expectations for the stock's performance.
• Quest Diagnostics recently reported $2.62 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, and the company has established an FY 2025 guidance of 9.630-9.830 EPS.

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX - Free Report) by 31.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,949 shares of the medical research company's stock after purchasing an additional 3,785 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC's holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $2,865,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,984,238 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $1,012,534,000 after acquiring an additional 493,960 shares during the period. Boston Partners bought a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the 1st quarter valued at about $388,724,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 7.7% in the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,177,572 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $199,245,000 after acquiring an additional 84,530 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,013,030 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $171,405,000 after acquiring an additional 10,651 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 961,154 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $162,628,000 after acquiring an additional 6,079 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on DGX. Robert W. Baird reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $194.00 price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Baird R W downgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $185.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an "in-line" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $160.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $186.81.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

Shares of Quest Diagnostics stock opened at $187.37 on Thursday. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a twelve month low of $146.91 and a twelve month high of $191.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $181.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.56.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.57 by $0.05. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 15.24%. The business had revenue of $2.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.73 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.35 EPS. The business's revenue was up 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Quest Diagnostics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 9.630-9.830 EPS. Analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 9.7 EPS for the current year.

Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. Quest Diagnostics's payout ratio is 38.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Patrick Plewman sold 1,975 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.00, for a total value of $365,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 15,269 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,824,765. The trade was a 11.45% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Michael E. Prevoznik sold 227 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $188.13, for a total transaction of $42,705.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 38,117 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,170,951.21. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 53,186 shares of company stock worth $9,647,471 in the last quarter. 8.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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