Quest Diagnostics, Inc. (NYSE:DGX) does about 781.41K shares in volume on a normal day but saw 2044013 shares change hands in the recent trading day. The company now has a market cap of 17.53B USD. Its current market price is $157.47, marking an increase of 6.85% compared to the previous close of $147.37. The 52 week high reached by this stock is $159.36 whilst the lowest price level in 52 weeks is $120.87. The script in recent trading has seen the stock touch a high of $190 and a low of $125.
Quest Diagnostics, Inc. (DGX) has a 20-day trading average at $151.03 and the current price is -1.19% off the 52-week high compared with 30.28% distance from its 52-week low. The 50-day simple moving average of the closing price is $152.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $139.70. If we look at the stock’s price movements over the week, volatility stands at 2.31%, which decreases to 1.82% over 1 month. It is also key to look at other market indicators of price movement for the stock, where we see that the relative strength index (RSI) is at 63.99 to suggest the stock is neutral.
10 analysts observing the Quest Diagnostics, Inc. (DGX) stock have set the 12-month price targets for the company’s shares at between $125 and $190. The consensus objective for the share price is $166.73, suggesting that the stock has a potential upside of 5.55% over the period. The median price target is -0.62% away from the current levels at $156.5.
FactSet Research has provided data showing that 10 brokerages have issued ratings for the stock. 1 analysts have rated it as a sell, while 1 advise that it is a overweight. 5 analysts have rated it as a buy and 3 have advised that investors hold their positions. The consensus recommendation rating is Buy and Wall Street’s advice is for investors to Moderate Buy the stock.
The company shares received a number of brokerage firm price updates over the past month, with the latest being on August 28, 2024 when Evercore ISI resumed the stock to “In-line” and issued a price target of $165. Citigroup upgraded the stock to “Buy” from Neutral on July 10, 2024 at a price target of $145-$165. Leerink Partners initiated its price target at $135.
The current price level is 4.26%, 3.18%, and 12.72% away from its SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200 respectively, with the DGX price moving above the 50-day SMA on current market day. Quest Diagnostics, Inc. (DGX) stock is up 5.44% over the week and 2.27% over the past month. Its price is 14.21% year-to-date and 27.27% over the past year.
The stock last released its quarterly earnings report for quarter ended 9/30/2024, with the company’s earnings per share (EPS) of 2.15 above consensus estimates by 0.04. The company’s next earnings report forecasts estimating quarterly EPS at 2.22 and 8.89 for whole year. Expected sales for next quarter are $2.56B, which analysts say will come at $9.71B for the current fiscal year and next year at $10.4B. In addition, estimates put the company’s current quarterly revenue at an average of $2.5B.
Its 12-month price target is $156.5. To reach the target analysts have set, the stock logically needs to grow 5.55 percent from here. Of course, the average price target is just what the average analysts believe a stock will be worth in the next 52 weeks, and is only one metric. There are analysts with lower targets than the average, including one bearish Wall Street research firm advocating investors to wait for the price to pull back to $125, given the recent momentum. And then, on the bullish side of things, one analyst is expecting the stock to peak at $190.
Outstanding shares total 111.00M with insiders holding 0.43% of the shares and institutional holders owning 91.32% of the company’s common stock. The company has a return on investment of 6.45% and return on equity of 12.66%. The price to earnings ratio (P/E ratio) amounts to 21.14 while the forward price to earnings ratio is 16.24. The beta has a value of 0.89. Price to book ratio is 2.59 and price to sales ratio is 1.84.
