Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.86

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, August 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, October 6th will be given a dividend of 0.86 per share by the medical research company on Wednesday, October 21st. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, October 6th.

Quest Diagnostics has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Quest Diagnostics has a payout ratio of 32.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Quest Diagnostics to earn $11.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.8%.

Quest Diagnostics Price Performance

NYSE DGX opened at $237.53 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $214.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $202.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.59, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. Quest Diagnostics has a 12-month low of $171.18 and a 12-month high of $240.13.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The medical research company reported $3.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.82 by $0.30. The firm had revenue of $3.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. Quest Diagnostics had a return on equity of 16.01% and a net margin of 9.18%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.62 EPS. Quest Diagnostics has set its FY 2026 guidance at 11.050-11.250 EPS. Analysts forecast that Quest Diagnostics will post 11.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on DGX. Evercore set a $225.00 target price on Quest Diagnostics in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wall Street Zen raised Quest Diagnostics from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Quest Diagnostics from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $220.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Quest Diagnostics from $220.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $235.31.

About Quest Diagnostics

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) is a leading provider of diagnostic information services that supports clinical decision-making for patients, physicians and healthcare organizations. The company operates a network of clinical laboratories and patient service centers that perform a broad range of laboratory tests and diagnostic assays used in routine care, disease diagnosis, monitoring and screening.

Its services span core clinical laboratory testing, anatomic pathology, molecular and genomic diagnostics, infectious disease testing and toxicology.