Advisors Capital Management LLC Acquires 14,258 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated $DGX

Advisors Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 5.0% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 297,644 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 14,258 shares during the period. Advisors Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.27% of Quest Diagnostics worth $56,725,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 2.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,233,576 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,556,777,000 after purchasing an additional 296,860 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 32.4% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,039,848 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $545,318,000 after purchasing an additional 744,102 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,982,415 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $533,563,000 after buying an additional 208,261 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 29.9% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,658,351 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $297,890,000 after buying an additional 381,619 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 36.3% during the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,599,602 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $287,337,000 after buying an additional 426,399 shares during the period. 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 analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $190.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $215.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Evercore set a $220.00 price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Leerink Partners lifted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $203.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $207.00 target price on Quest Diagnostics and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Quest Diagnostics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.29.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE DGX opened at $205.46 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $184.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $183.12. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a twelve month low of $157.20 and a twelve month high of $213.20. The company has a market capitalization of $22.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.48, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.66.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 10th. The medical research company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.35 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.75 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 15.57% and a net margin of 8.99%.The company’s revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.23 EPS. Quest Diagnostics has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.45-9.650 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 9.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 20th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 6th will be paid a $0.86 dividend. This is a boost from Quest Diagnostics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. This represents a $3.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 6th. Quest Diagnostics’s payout ratio is presently 36.57%.

Quest Diagnostics announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, February 10th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the medical research company to repurchase up to 4.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Quest Diagnostics

In related news, Director Vicky B. Gregg sold 1,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.76, for a total transaction of $239,700.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 17,037 shares in the company, valued at $3,267,015.12. This trade represents a 6.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO J. E. Davis sold 55,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.22, for a total value of $10,589,976.46. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 120,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,158,665.60. The trade was a 31.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 62,005 shares of company stock worth $11,984,724 over the last three months. Company insiders own 8.16% of the company’s stock.

About Quest Diagnostics

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.