Apollon Wealth Management LLC Has $975,000 Stock Position in Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,279 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 732 shares during the quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $975,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 16.5% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 131,329 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $17,481,000 after acquiring an additional 18,642 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 2.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 13,921,955 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $1,853,151,000 after acquiring an additional 345,754 shares in the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new stake in shares of Quest Diagnostics during the first quarter worth about $729,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 126.0% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 37,305 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $4,966,000 after acquiring an additional 20,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Quest Diagnostics by 292.5% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,733 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $648,000 after acquiring an additional 3,527 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $165.00 target price for the company. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $165.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Barclays boosted their target price on Quest Diagnostics from $154.00 to $168.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Quest Diagnostics from $165.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $164.58.

Insider Buying and Selling at Quest Diagnostics

In other Quest Diagnostics news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,990 shares of Quest Diagnostics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $153.26, for a total transaction of $304,987.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 11,459 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,756,206.34. The trade was a 14.80 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.05, for a total transaction of $2,889,207.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 34,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,382,661.05. The trade was a 34.93 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,520 shares of company stock valued at $3,472,728 in the last 90 days. 0.79% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Quest Diagnostics Stock Performance

Shares of DGX opened at $160.39 on Friday. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a 1 year low of $123.04 and a 1 year high of $162.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $153.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $147.26. The firm has a market cap of $17.90 billion, a PE ratio of 21.56, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.89.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The medical research company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.26 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.43 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a net margin of 8.82% and a return on equity of 15.25%. The company’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.22 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics Incorporated will post 8.9 EPS for the current year.

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, January 14th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, January 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio is 40.32%.

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.