Short Interest in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) Decreases By 6.4%

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) was the target of a large drop in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,910,000 shares, a drop of 6.4% from the November 30th total of 2,040,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 828,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Quest Diagnostics

In other Quest Diagnostics news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,775 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,734 shares in the company, valued at $1,527,459.28. This represents a 15.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 34,941 shares in the company, valued at $5,382,661.05. The trade was a 34.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Quest Diagnostics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,263,231 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $817,117,000 after acquiring an additional 70,578 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,616,653 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $404,838,000 after purchasing an additional 39,217 shares during the last quarter. Davis Selected Advisers raised its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 0.4% in the second quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 2,390,828 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $327,257,000 after purchasing an additional 9,665 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 129,395 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 748,680 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $115,621,000 after buying an additional 15,047 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on DGX. UBS Group raised 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. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $157.00 to $182.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $158.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on Quest Diagnostics from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Quest Diagnostics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $169.15.

Quest Diagnostics Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE DGX opened at $150.86 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. The company has a market cap of $16.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.89. Quest Diagnostics has a 52 week low of $123.04 and a 52 week high of $165.32. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $157.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.45.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.04. The firm 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%. The company’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 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Quest Diagnostics will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. 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.