Blair William & Co. IL Has $6.06 Million Holdings in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Blair William & Co. IL grew its holdings in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 14.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,157 shares of the medical research company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,218 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $6,058,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 14,688 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,216,000 after acquiring an additional 2,069 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 60.4% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,433,913 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $367,180,000 after purchasing an additional 916,898 shares during the last quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics during the fourth quarter worth $1,807,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 177,389 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $26,949,000 after purchasing an additional 8,665 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Korea Investment CORP increased its holdings in Quest Diagnostics by 44.3% in the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 44,329 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $6,687,000 after purchasing an additional 13,600 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Quest Diagnostics

In other news, SVP Mark E. Delaney sold 403 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $164.30, for a total value of $66,212.90. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,624 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $759,723.20. This represents a 8.02 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Vicky B. Gregg sold 1,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $164.57, for a total transaction of $205,712.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 16,867 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,775,802.19. This represents a 6.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,157 shares of company stock valued at $2,423,755. Insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup lowered Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $185.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com cut shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Leerink Partnrs upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $172.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Quest Diagnostics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $172.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Quest Diagnostics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $178.38.

Quest Diagnostics Trading Up 0.8 %

NYSE:DGX opened at $167.28 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $18.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.92. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a twelve month low of $125.42 and a twelve month high of $178.87. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $166.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $159.09. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The medical research company reported $2.23 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.04. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 8.80% and a return on equity of 15.07%. As a group, analysts expect that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 9.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 21st. Investors of record on Monday, April 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 is presently 41.61%.

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.