74,250 Shares in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated $DGX Purchased by Boston Common Asset Management LLC

Boston Common Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 74,250 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,338,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 9.0% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,984,238 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,012,534,000 after purchasing an additional 493,960 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners purchased a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the first quarter worth about $388,724,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 7.7% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,177,572 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $199,245,000 after purchasing an additional 84,530 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 1.1% in the first 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 worth $171,405,000 after purchasing an additional 10,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 0.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 961,154 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $162,628,000 after purchasing an additional 6,079 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DGX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $194.00 target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $160.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 10th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $190.00 to $192.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $176.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $186.31.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Down 1.0%

Shares of Quest Diagnostics stock opened at $179.07 on Friday. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 1 year low of $146.17 and a 1 year high of $191.49. The firm has a market cap of $20.02 billion, a PE ratio of 21.45, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $179.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $175.03.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.62 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $2.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.35 earnings per share. Quest Diagnostics’s revenue for the quarter 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 expect that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 9.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. Quest Diagnostics’s payout ratio is presently 38.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Quest Diagnostics

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 sale, 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 legal filing with the SEC, 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 stock was sold at an average price of $188.13, for a total transaction of $42,705.51. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 38,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 a total of 53,186 shares of company stock worth $9,647,471 over the last three months. 8.16% of the stock is owned by 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.