Wellington Management Group LLP Sells 217,344 Shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX)

Wellington Management Group LLP lessened its holdings in shares of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) by 8.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,333,448 shares of the medical research company’s stock after selling 217,344 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Quest Diagnostics were worth $362,268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Quest Diagnostics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,363,000. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 92,830 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $14,412,000 after buying an additional 6,619 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 601.7% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 277,561 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $37,993,000 after purchasing an additional 238,007 shares during the last quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 8,669.8% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 62,178 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $9,653,000 after purchasing an additional 61,469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in Quest Diagnostics by 326.0% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 15,882 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $2,114,000 after purchasing an additional 12,154 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

DGX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $157.00 to $182.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Quest Diagnostics from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Baird R W upgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com downgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $165.00 price objective for the company. Nine 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $164.58.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

Shares of DGX stock opened at $157.35 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $17.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.15, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s fifty day moving average is $156.24 and its 200 day moving average is $149.81. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated has a twelve month low of $123.04 and a twelve month high of $165.32. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

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

Quest Diagnostics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, January 14th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 14th. Quest Diagnostics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.32%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Quest Diagnostics news, SVP Karthik Kuppusamy sold 1,775 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $156.92, for a total value of $278,533.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,527,459.28. The trade was a 15.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Michael J. Deppe sold 18,755 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, 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. Corporate 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.