Short Interest in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) Increases By 19.7%

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) was the target of a large increase in short interest in August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,790,000 shares, an increase of 19.7% from the July 31st total of 2,330,000 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 873,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,990 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.26, for a total transaction of $304,987.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,756,206.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,990 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $153.26, for a total transaction of $304,987.40. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 11,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,756,206.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Mark E. Delaney sold 420 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.08, for a total transaction of $60,093.60. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 5,019 shares in the company, valued at $718,118.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in DGX. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 19.4% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 16,259 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $2,242,000 after buying an additional 2,640 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC purchased a new position in shares of Quest Diagnostics in the fourth quarter worth $234,000. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 7,232 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $997,000 after buying an additional 685 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 47.2% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 80,601 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $11,113,000 after buying an additional 25,847 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 14.4% in the fourth quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 10,897 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,502,000 after buying an additional 1,373 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

DGX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Wednesday. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $165.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $145.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $144.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $152.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $154.33.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

NYSE DGX opened at $156.97 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $146.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $137.85. Quest Diagnostics has a 52-week low of $119.59 and a 52-week high of $157.34. The company has a market cap of $17.44 billion, a PE ratio of 21.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.89.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The medical research company reported $2.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.31 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $2.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.39 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 8.99% and a return on equity of 15.35%. Quest Diagnostics’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.30 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics will post 8.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quest Diagnostics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.38%.

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.