Quest Diagnostics Incorporated
- Open
- 208.61
- Day high
- 211.00
- Day low
- 205.61
- Prev close
- 210.68
- Volume
- 804K
- Mkt cap
- $23.0B
- P/E (TTM)
- 22.6
- EPS (TTM)
- $9.17
- P/B
- 3.1
- P/S
- 2.0
- Yield
- 1.60%
- Per share
- $3.32
- ▼Insiders net selling -$3.6M over the last 3 months (0 open-market buys, 2 sales)
- 🏛Institutions mixed (13F)
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (DGX) is a Healthcare company listed on NYSE. The stock is up 25% over the past year. Over the trailing 3 months, insiders filed 0 open-market buys and 2 sales (SEC Form 4).
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (DGX) financials & analyst ratings
Fundamentals (TTM)
Analyst consensus · 4 analysts
Source: exchange market data + company filings. Figures are trailing-twelve-month or as most recently reported. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
DGX earnings date, history & EPS estimates
| Report date | EPS est | EPS actual | Surprise | Revenue | Rev. surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 21, 2026 | $2.37 | $2.50 | +5.5% | $2.9B | +2.3% |
| Oct 21, 2025 | $2.50 | $2.60 | +4.0% | $2.8B | +2.9% |
| Jul 22, 2025 | $2.57 | $2.62 | +1.9% | $2.8B | +1.3% |
| Apr 22, 2025 | $2.15 | $2.21 | +2.8% | $2.7B | +0.8% |
| Jan 30, 2025 | $2.19 | $2.23 | +1.8% | $2.6B | +1.6% |
| Oct 22, 2024 | $2.26 | $2.30 | +1.8% | $2.5B | +2.3% |
| Jul 23, 2024 | $2.34 | $2.35 | +0.4% | $2.4B | +0.3% |
| Feb 1, 2024 | $2.11 | $2.15 | +1.9% | $2.3B | +1.5% |
| Jul 26, 2023 | $2.27 | $2.30 | +1.3% | $2.3B | +3.7% |
| Apr 27, 2023 | $1.97 | $2.04 | +3.6% | $2.3B | +6.1% |
| Feb 2, 2023 | $1.90 | $1.98 | +4.2% | $2.3B | +3.4% |
| Oct 20, 2022 | $2.19 | $2.36 | +7.8% | $2.5B | +5.9% |
DGX insider trading activity (SEC Form 4)
| Date | Insider | Type | Shares | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 2, 2026 | WENTWORTH TIMOTHY Cdirector | Grant | 144 | — |
| Jun 8, 2026 | KUPPUSAMY KARTHIKofficer: SVP, Clinical Solutions | Option | 4,827 | $121.81 |
| Jun 8, 2026 | KUPPUSAMY KARTHIKofficer: SVP, Clinical Solutions | Sell | 8,147 | $200.00 |
| Jun 8, 2026 | KUPPUSAMY KARTHIKofficer: SVP, Clinical Solutions | Option | 3,320 | $127.72 |
| Jun 2, 2026 | Davis J. E.director, officer: CEO and President | Sell | 10,000 | $194.14 |
| May 21, 2026 | CARTER ROBERT Bdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | Diaz Luisdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | WENTWORTH TIMOTHY Cdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | Gregg Vicky Bdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | MAIN TIMOTHY Ldirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | Lassiter Wright IIIdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | RING TIMOTHY Mdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | MORRISON DENISE Mdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | PFEIFFER GARY Mdirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
| May 21, 2026 | Doi Traceydirector | Grant | 1,142 | — |
Source: DGX SEC Form 4 filings, latest Jul 2, 2026. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
See the full DGX insider & 13F page →Quest Diagnostics Incorporated company profile
Overview
Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) is one of the largest clinical laboratory testing companies in the United States, founded in 1967 and headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey. The company went public in 1996 and has grown through both organic expansion and strategic acquisitions to become a dominant player in the diagnostic testing industry. Quest operates a nationwide network of laboratories and patient service centers, providing essential diagnostic information services to healthcare providers, patients, and other stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem.
Business
Quest Diagnostics operates in the medical diagnostics industry, which serves as a critical foundation of modern healthcare by providing laboratory testing services that help physicians diagnose diseases, monitor patient health, and guide treatment decisions. The diagnostic testing industry encompasses everything from routine blood work and urinalysis to sophisticated genetic testing and cancer screening. The company's core business is Diagnostic Information Services, which generates the vast majority of its revenue (approximately 95% based on recent earnings). This segment includes routine testing such as blood chemistry panels, complete blood counts, and urinalysis, as well as non-routine and advanced clinical testing including molecular diagnostics, genetic testing, and specialized disease markers. Quest also provides anatomic pathology services, which involve the examination of tissue samples to diagnose diseases like cancer. Quest serves multiple customer channels: Physician Lab Services provides testing for doctors' offices and clinics, Hospital Lab Services offers outreach laboratory services to hospitals that prefer to outsource their testing rather than maintain in-house labs, and a growing Consumer-Initiated Testing segment allows individuals to order tests directly without a physician's order. The company has been expanding its Advanced Diagnostics portfolio, focusing on five key areas: brain health (including Alzheimer's disease testing), molecular genomics, oncology (including minimal residual disease testing for cancer monitoring), cardiometabolic health, and women's health. These higher-value tests typically command premium pricing compared to routine testing. Quest also operates smaller segments including risk assessment services for the life insurance industry and healthcare information technology solutions, though these represent a minor portion of total revenue.
Revenue model
Quest Diagnostics generates revenue primarily through fee-for-service testing, where the company is paid for each test performed. The majority of payments come from health insurance plans (both government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and private insurers), with patients typically responsible for copayments or deductibles. The company also receives direct payments from physicians, hospitals, employers conducting workplace health screenings, and increasingly from consumers paying out-of-pocket for direct testing services. The business model benefits from several characteristics: testing is generally non-discretionary healthcare spending (people need diagnostic tests regardless of economic conditions), there are significant economies of scale in laboratory operations, and the company can leverage its extensive infrastructure across a growing volume of tests. Revenue per requisition is a key metric, influenced by the number of tests ordered per patient visit (tests per requisition), the complexity and pricing of those tests, and the payer mix. Advanced diagnostics typically generate higher margins than routine testing, which explains Quest's strategic focus on expanding these capabilities. Factors that could increase margins include: successful contract negotiations with health plans for better reimbursement rates, growth in higher-margin advanced diagnostics, operational efficiency improvements through automation and artificial intelligence, and favorable changes in test mix toward more complex testing. The company's "Invigorate" productivity program targets 3% annual cost savings through process improvements and automation. Factors that could pressure margins include: unfavorable payer contract renewals, increased competition leading to pricing pressure, wage inflation (particularly for laboratory technicians and phlebotomists), regulatory compliance costs (such as potential FDA oversight of laboratory-developed tests), and shifts toward lower-margin routine testing. The company has experienced some margin pressure from elevated employee turnover and wage inflation in recent years, though this has been partially offset by productivity improvements.
Competitive moat
Quest Diagnostics possesses a moderately strong economic moat built primarily on scale advantages, network effects, and switching costs. The company's extensive infrastructure of laboratories, patient service centers, and logistics networks creates significant barriers to entry, as replicating this nationwide footprint would require enormous capital investment and years of development. The company benefits from network effects - its broad geographic coverage makes it attractive to national health plans and large physician groups who prefer working with fewer vendors. Quest's scale allows it to offer comprehensive test menus, faster turnaround times, and competitive pricing that smaller regional labs struggle to match. The company also has switching costs advantages, as healthcare providers invest time and resources in integrating Quest's systems with their electronic health records and workflow processes. Quest's relationships with major health plans create some competitive protection, though these contracts are periodically renegotiated and can be lost to competitors. The company's investment in advanced diagnostics and proprietary tests (such as the Haystack cancer monitoring test) provides some differentiation, though many diagnostic tests are commoditized. However, the moat faces several challenges. LabCorp is a formidable competitor with similar scale and capabilities, creating an effective duopoly that limits pricing power. Hospitals increasingly operate their own laboratories for routine testing, though they often outsource more complex testing. Emerging threats include point-of-care testing devices that can perform some tests in physicians' offices, direct-to-consumer testing companies, and potential technological disruption from artificial intelligence and new diagnostic technologies. The regulatory environment also poses risks, particularly potential FDA oversight of laboratory-developed tests, which could increase compliance costs and slow innovation. Overall, Quest's moat is solid but not impregnable, requiring continuous investment in technology, efficiency, and advanced testing capabilities to maintain competitive advantages.
Risks & safety
Quest Diagnostics demonstrates a reasonable margin of safety with solid financial fundamentals, though some metrics warrant attention. **Cash and Debt Position:** • Cash and short-term investments: $188 million (Q1 2025) • Total debt-to-equity ratio: 0.95 (moderate leverage) • Strong free cash flow generation: $197 million in Q1 2025, $909 million for full year 2024 • No immediate solvency concerns given consistent cash generation **Valuation Metrics:** • Current P/E ratio: 21.3x (reasonable for a healthcare services company) • EV/EBITDA: 12.9x (moderate valuation) • Price-to-book ratio: 2.7x • Graham number suggests modest undervaluation relative to current price **Other Considerations:** • Defensive healthcare business model with non-discretionary demand • Consistent dividend payments and share repurchase program • Some working capital management challenges (current ratio of 1.44) • Exposure to reimbursement rate pressures from health plans • Capital intensive business requiring ongoing technology investments
Recent development
Over the past few years, Quest Diagnostics has executed a clear strategic transformation focused on three main pillars: expanding advanced diagnostics capabilities, pursuing strategic acquisitions, and implementing operational improvements through automation and artificial intelligence. The company has significantly expanded its Advanced Diagnostics portfolio, particularly in brain health with new Alzheimer's disease testing panels including the recently launched AD-Detect blood test. In oncology, Quest integrated Haystack Oncology and began commercializing minimal residual disease (MRD) testing for cancer recurrence monitoring. The company has also grown its women's health, cardiometabolic, and autoimmune testing capabilities, with these advanced diagnostics generating double-digit growth rates. Quest's acquisition strategy has been active, completing eight acquisitions in 2024 alone, including the major purchase of LifeLabs in Canada, which expanded the company's geographic footprint internationally. The company has consistently acquired hospital outreach laboratory assets from health systems like Allina Health and OhioHealth, expanding its market share in key regions. The PathAI Diagnostics acquisition added digital pathology capabilities. Operational excellence initiatives have centered on the "Invigorate" program, targeting 3% annual cost savings through process improvements, automation, and AI implementation. Quest has deployed automation in specimen processing, implemented AI in microbiology and customer service, and launched "Project Nova" to modernize its order-to-cash processes. The company has also expanded its consumer-initiated testing platform, achieving nearly 50% growth in Q4 2024. Recent strategic partnerships include collaboration with Google Cloud for data management and generative AI applications, and inclusion in Optum Health's preferred laboratory network. Quest has also introduced self-collection options for HPV and STI testing, expanding patient convenience and access.
DGX company profile · for informational purposes only — not investment advice.
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