Citigroup Increases Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) Price Target to $145.00

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) had its price objective increased by equities researchers at Citigroup from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the medical research company’s stock. Citigroup’s price target indicates a potential upside of 7.03% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Quest Diagnostics from $139.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TheStreet lowered Quest Diagnostics from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Monday, February 5th. SVB Leerink began coverage on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $135.00 price target on the stock. Barclays started coverage on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $145.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Quest Diagnostics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $146.17.

Quest Diagnostics Stock Performance

Shares of Quest Diagnostics stock opened at $135.47 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The firm has a market cap of $15.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $128.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $131.11. Quest Diagnostics has a fifty-two week low of $119.59 and a fifty-two week high of $147.96.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The medical research company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.86 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.29 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 15.52%. Quest Diagnostics’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.04 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Quest Diagnostics will post 8.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Michael E. Prevoznik sold 5,611 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $706,312.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,478 shares in the company, valued at $4,843,610.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Michael E. Prevoznik sold 5,611 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $125.88, for a total value of $706,312.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 38,478 shares in the company, valued at $4,843,610.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Michael E. Prevoznik sold 661 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.14, for a total transaction of $83,378.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 40,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,071,584.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 15,150 shares of company stock worth $1,913,202 over the last quarter. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DGX. NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Quest Diagnostics during the third quarter worth $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in Quest Diagnostics during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 100.0% during the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 218 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Quest Diagnostics during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Spartan Planning & Wealth Management acquired a new position in Quest Diagnostics during the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.06% 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.