Martin Capital Partners LLC Reduces Stock Position in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Martin Capital Partners LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 60.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,708 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 2,598 shares during the quarter. Martin Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $258,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in DGX. State Street Corp boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 70,578 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Quest Diagnostics by 1.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,616,653 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $404,838,000 after acquiring an additional 39,217 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings 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 worth $115,621,000 after purchasing an additional 15,047 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 25.4% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 747,298 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $116,018,000 after purchasing an additional 151,365 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 708,100 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $109,933,000 after purchasing an additional 12,565 shares during the last quarter. 88.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on DGX shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $145.00 to $172.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $173.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price objective (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a report on Monday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Quest Diagnostics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.69.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of Quest Diagnostics stock opened at $163.43 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $155.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $153.81. The firm has a market cap of $18.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.91. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $123.18 and a fifty-two week high of $167.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.04. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 15.07% and a net margin of 8.80%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 9.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 21st. Investors of record on Monday, April 7th will be given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 7th. This is a positive change from Quest Diagnostics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.01%.

Quest Diagnostics Profile

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.