New York State Teachers Retirement System Trims Stake in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its holdings in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 4.4% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 91,632 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 4,219 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $14,226,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DGX. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in Quest Diagnostics by 760.7% in the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,556 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,603,000 after purchasing an additional 17,284 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in Quest Diagnostics by 9.7% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 50,330 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $6,929,000 after purchasing an additional 4,464 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Quest Diagnostics by 46.7% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 526,479 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $70,080,000 after purchasing an additional 167,623 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Quest Diagnostics by 45.6% in the first quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 3,294 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares during the period. Finally, Fidelis Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the 1st quarter valued at $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on DGX shares. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $160.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $158.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $154.00 to $168.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on Quest Diagnostics in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $165.00 price objective on the stock. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $164.58.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DGX opened at $155.29 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $153.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $145.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.17. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 1-year low of $123.04 and a 1-year high of $160.95. The company has a market cap of $17.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.89.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion during 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.22 EPS. Analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 8.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.93%. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.32%.

Insider Transactions at Quest Diagnostics

In other news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,775 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.92, for a total transaction of $278,533.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,527,459.28. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

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.