Insider Selling: Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) CAO Sells $2,889,207.75 in Stock

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 34,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,382,661.05. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Quest Diagnostics Stock Performance

Shares of Quest Diagnostics stock opened at $159.37 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 0.89. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $153.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $146.67. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 12 month low of $123.04 and a 12 month high of $160.95.

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

Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 21st. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. Quest Diagnostics’s payout ratio is 40.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in Quest Diagnostics during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 77.5% during the 2nd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 229 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Quest Diagnostics during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new position in Quest Diagnostics in the 2nd quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DGX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com cut Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $157.00 to $182.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $154.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $160.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $158.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $164.58.

Quest Diagnostics Company Profile

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.