Financial Counselors Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Financial Counselors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 103,469 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 1,041 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc. owned 0.09% of Quest Diagnostics worth $16,064,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Davis Selected Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Davis Selected Advisers now owns 2,390,828 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $327,257,000 after buying an additional 9,665 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,109,515 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $288,758,000 after buying an additional 129,395 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 748,680 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $115,621,000 after buying an additional 15,047 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 25.4% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 747,298 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $116,018,000 after buying an additional 151,365 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 1.8% during 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 buying an additional 12,565 shares during the period. 88.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

Shares of DGX opened at $163.36 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $18.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.96, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.89. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $155.26 and a 200-day moving average of $148.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 52 week low of $123.04 and a 52 week high of $165.32.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.04. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 15.25% and a net margin of 8.82%. The company had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.43 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.22 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 14th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.32%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DGX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $157.00 to $182.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Baird R W upgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $160.00 to $174.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Quest Diagnostics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $164.58.

Insider Activity at Quest Diagnostics

In other Quest Diagnostics news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,775 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.92, for a total transaction of $278,533.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 9,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,527,459.28. The trade was a 15.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.05, for a total value of $2,889,207.75. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 34,941 shares in the company, valued at $5,382,661.05. The trade was a 34.93 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.79% 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.