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Quest Diagnostics (DGX) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Quest Diagnostics (DGX - Free Report) closed at $107.05 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.33% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 2.02% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.6%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 2.71%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the medical laboratory operator had lost 10.6% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's loss of 2.71% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.39% in that time.

DGX will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, DGX is projected to report earnings of $3.43 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 94.89%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.59 billion, up 32.39% from the year-ago period.

DGX's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $8.40 per share and revenue of $8.71 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +28.05% and +12.8%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for DGX. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. DGX is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, DGX currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.79. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 38.19.

We can also see that DGX currently has a PEG ratio of 0.81. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare was holding an average PEG ratio of 3.21 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 74, putting it in the top 30% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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