Cetera Investment Advisers Buys 8,362 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated $DGX

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 28.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 37,274 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 8,362 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $7,305,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Davis Selected Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 1,589,883 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $275,895,000 after acquiring an additional 228,271 shares in the last quarter. Capital Management Associates Inc bought a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the 4th quarter worth $1,024,000. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 178.7% in the 4th quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 171,987 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $29,847,000 after purchasing an additional 110,280 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC grew its position in Quest Diagnostics by 5.4% in the 4th quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC now owns 313,838 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $54,460,000 after purchasing an additional 16,194 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Quest Diagnostics in the 4th quarter valued at $92,000. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO J. E. Davis sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.14, for a total value of $1,941,400.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 8,147 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president directly 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 19,747 shares of company stock worth $3,947,088 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on DGX. Evercore set a $225.00 price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $235.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Argus set a $260.00 target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $235.31.

Quest Diagnostics Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:DGX opened at $233.21 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $207.36 and its 200 day moving average is $199.58. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 12-month low of $166.76 and a 12-month high of $240.13. The stock has a market cap of $25.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.76, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

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

Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 8th were paid a $0.86 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 8th. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.52%.

Quest Diagnostics Company Profile

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.