By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Board of the Pension Protection Fund purchased a new position in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX – Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 600 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $91,000.
Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in DGX. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,363,000. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 7.7% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 92,830 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $14,412,000 after purchasing an additional 6,619 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 85.5% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 17,969 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,940,000 after purchasing an additional 8,282 shares in the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Quest Diagnostics by 8,669.8% in the 3rd quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 62,178 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $9,653,000 after purchasing an additional 61,469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 747,298 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $116,018,000 after purchasing an additional 151,365 shares in the last quarter. 88.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
Several equities research analysts recently commented on DGX shares. Baird R W raised Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Leerink Partners raised Quest Diagnostics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $169.00 to $174.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Robert W. Baird raised Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $157.00 to $182.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Quest Diagnostics from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.15.
Get Our Latest Analysis on DGX
Insider Transactions at Quest Diagnostics
In other news, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 34,941 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,382,661.05. This represents a 34.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,775 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.92, for a total value of $278,533.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,734 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,527,459.28. This represents a 15.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.79% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Quest Diagnostics Stock Down 1.6 %
Shares of DGX opened at $150.47 on Thursday. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 52 week low of $123.04 and a 52 week high of $165.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $156.66 and a 200-day simple moving average of $152.47. 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 – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 8.82%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.22 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.
Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, January 14th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 14th. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio is 40.32%.
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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