Avity Investment Management Inc. Purchases New Stake in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Avity Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,625 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 5.0% in the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 6,093 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $834,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 142.0% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,309 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $179,000 after buying an additional 768 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 226,598 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $31,017,000 after buying an additional 6,230 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics during the second quarter valued at approximately $22,049,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 6.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,109,515 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $288,758,000 after acquiring an additional 129,395 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,775 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was 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 trade represents a 15.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 trade represents a 34.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.79% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on DGX. StockNews.com cut shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. 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 research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Leerink Partners upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $169.00 to $174.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on Quest Diagnostics from $158.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $172.15.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE DGX opened at $152.84 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $156.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $152.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of $17.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.90. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 12 month low of $123.04 and a 12 month high of $165.32.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 15.25%. Quest Diagnostics’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 14th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.96%. Quest Diagnostics’s payout ratio is currently 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.