Legal & General Group Plc Sells 12,701 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated $DGX

Legal & General Group Plc cut its position in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 742,974 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 12,701 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $128,928,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in DGX. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 114.3% in the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 150 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 80 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 113.7% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 156 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. McIlrath & Eck LLC bought a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 66.1% during the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. 88.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Quest Diagnostics news, SVP Michael E. Prevoznik sold 3,878 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.21, for a total value of $799,682.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 37,557 shares in the company, valued at $7,744,628.97. This represents a 9.36% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Patrick Plewman sold 2,855 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.21, for a total value of $588,729.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 15,198 shares in the company, valued at $3,133,979.58. This represents a 15.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 14,919 shares of company stock valued at $3,072,899 over the last 90 days. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

Shares of NYSE DGX opened at $196.67 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $194.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $191.02. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a twelve month low of $164.65 and a twelve month high of $213.50.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The medical research company reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.37 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $2.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.83 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 15.60% and a net margin of 9.07%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.94 EPS. Quest Diagnostics has set its FY 2026 guidance at 10.630-10.830 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 10.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Tuesday, February 10th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the medical research company to repurchase up to 4.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 8th will be paid a $0.86 dividend. This represents a $3.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 8th. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DGX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $190.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $210.00 to $235.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $216.58.

Quest Diagnostics Company 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.