California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 5,763 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated $DGX

California State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 3.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 162,238 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 5,763 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.15% of Quest Diagnostics worth $31,795,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,392,082 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,497,458,000 after purchasing an additional 140,450 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,382,547 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $934,033,000 after acquiring an additional 158,617 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 32.8% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,036,881 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $767,978,000 after acquiring an additional 997,033 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,693,568 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $467,415,000 after acquiring an additional 406,658 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 35.1% during the first quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,243,869 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $439,753,000 after acquiring an additional 582,797 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on DGX shares. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Evercore set a $225.00 price target on Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 23rd. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $235.31.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

Shares of DGX stock opened at $233.21 on Friday. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 12 month low of $166.76 and a 12 month high of $240.13. The company has a market capitalization of $25.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $207.36 and a two-hundred day moving average of $199.58. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

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

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Quest Diagnostics

In other news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 8,147 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $1,629,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 13,510 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,702,000. This represents a 37.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO J. E. Davis sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.14, for a total transaction of $1,941,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 132,423 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,708,601.22. The trade was a 7.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 19,747 shares of company stock valued at $3,947,088 in the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Quest Diagnostics 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.