Bank of America Boosts Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) Price Target to $182.00

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) had its price target increased by Bank of America from $179.00 to $182.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 17.42% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on DGX. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $185.00 price objective (up from $175.00) on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Quest Diagnostics from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Barclays raised their target price on Quest Diagnostics from $154.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com cut Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded 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 report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $168.92.

Quest Diagnostics Stock Performance

NYSE:DGX opened at $155.00 on Friday. Quest Diagnostics has a 1 year low of $123.04 and a 1 year high of $165.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $156.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $150.29. The company has a market capitalization of $17.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.89.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 8.82%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.22 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Quest Diagnostics will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Quest Diagnostics

In other news, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.05, for a total value of $2,889,207.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 34,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,382,661.05. The trade was a 34.93 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,775 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $156.92, for a total transaction of $278,533.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,734 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,527,459.28. This represents a 15.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Quest Diagnostics

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $817,117,000 after acquiring an additional 70,578 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 1.5% in the 3rd 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 period. Davis Selected Advisers lifted its position 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 during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 6.5% in 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 boosted its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 2.1% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 748,680 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $115,621,000 after purchasing an additional 15,047 shares during the period. 88.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.