Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Acquires 29,469 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its holdings in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 16.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 212,951 shares of the medical research company’s stock after buying an additional 29,469 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $29,362,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Quest Diagnostics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 79.3% during the fourth quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 242 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 1,100.0% during the third quarter. FinTrust Capital Advisors LLC now owns 264 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on DGX. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $145.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Leerink Partnrs restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Monday, February 26th. SVB Leerink assumed coverage on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Monday, February 26th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $135.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $146.17.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Vicky B. Gregg sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.64, for a total value of $316,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,329 shares in the company, valued at $2,067,904.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Vicky B. Gregg sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.64, for a total value of $316,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 16,329 shares in the company, valued at $2,067,904.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 value of $83,378.54. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 40,206 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

NYSE:DGX opened at $134.26 on Friday. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 12 month low of $119.59 and a 12 month high of $146.85. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $129.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $131.17. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market cap of $14.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 0.91.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The medical research company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.18. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 15.52% and a net margin of 9.11%. The company had revenue of $2.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.04 EPS. Quest Diagnostics’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 8.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 8th were given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 5th. This is a positive change from Quest Diagnostics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.71. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio is 38.22%.

Quest Diagnostics Company 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.