QualityDipStocks / Health Care · Medical Specialities
Quest Diagnostics DGX
Not in a dip: trading near its 52-week high.
A quality company trading above our fair value estimate.
- Fair value est.
- $202.89−19%
- Market Value
- $245.59price +2%
- Off 52-wk high
- at the high
- Risk vs market
- Lowbeta −0.10
5 bullish · 5 bearish See why
Key levels
Every level vs today’s $251.82
- 52-wk lowlowest close, 1 year$173.49−31.1%
- Fair value est.base case$202.89−19.4%
- Market Valueavg paid since Oct 22$245.59−2.5%
- PriceFri Oct 30 close$251.82you are here
- 52-wk highhighest close, 1 year$252.92+0.4%
Fair value estimate
How the range is computed
Ten-year free-cash-flow DCF. Same 10-year free-cash-flow model as the base: discount rate 9.5% ±1 point and growth 3.7% ±2 points. Bear = 10.5% and 1.7%; bull = 8.5% and 5.7% (both fade to 3%). A model estimate from public filings, not a forecast of where the price will go.
Price sits inside the range.
What the price implies To be worth today’s price, DGX’s free cash flow would need to grow about 8% a year for five years; our estimate uses 4%.
Risk vs market
How risk vs market is measured
One year of daily returns (Oct 30 to Oct 30, 252 sessions). Beta = how much DGX moved for each 1% move in the S&P 500 (SPY); 1.0 moves with the market. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns. Past behavior, not a forecast.
Has moved mostly independently of the market, but its own price swings are 1.9× the S&P 500’s (it moves on its own news).
- Beta vs S&P 500
- -0.10
- Volatility
- 24% vs 13% SPY
- Correlation SPY
- −0.06
- Correlation QQQ
- −0.18
Bull vs bear
Rule-based from the data on this page, strongest first. Not advice.
Top bullish points 5 of 5
ValuationFree-cash-flow yield of 4.9% (price / FCF 20.5×): $1.4B of free cash in the last 12 months.
ProfitabilityReturn on equity of 15% over the last 12 months.
GrowthSales grew 9% to $11.8B over the last 12 months vs the 12 months before (SEC filings).
ValuationEV/EBITDA of 14.3×, below the 17.0× median for the 55 Health Care companies we cover.
QualityPasses all four of our quality checks: cash generation, returns on capital, growth and balance sheet.
Top bearish points 5 of 5
ValuationOur DCF fair value estimate is $202.89, 19% below the price.
ValuationP/E of 25.0× is 30% above its own average of 19.3× at the last 3 fiscal year-ends.
ProfitabilityGross margin of 33%, below the 65% median for the 81 Health Care companies we cover.
GrowthSales grew 3.7% a year over the last three fiscal years, below the 7.3% median for the 101 Health Care companies we cover.
Balance sheetDebt / equity of 0.7×, above the 0.7× median for the 67 Health Care companies we cover.
Who’s talking about it
Notable investors, executives, analysts and public figures on Quest Diagnostics in the last 48 hours. Headlines as published, each linked. Their words, not ours.
No notable mentions in the last 48 hours. Checked Nov 1, 9:09 PM ET.
Compare with peers
Closest in size in Medical Specialities
All fundamentals
P/E 25.0 · FCF yield 4.9% · ROE 15%
Valuation
- P/E
- 25.0×3-yr-end avg 19.3× · Health Care median 29.2×
- Price / FCF
- 20.5×
- FCF yield
- 4.9%
- EV / EBITDA
- 14.3×
- Price / sales
- 2.38×
- Price / book
- 3.70×
- Market cap
- $28.2Bprice × diluted shares
- Enterprise value
- $33.0B
Growth
- Revenue, 12 months
- $11.8B
- Sales growth, 12 months
- +9.1%vs the 12 months before
- Sales growth, 3 yrs
- +3.7%/yrfrom FY2022
- Diluted EPS, 12 months
- $10.04
- EPS growth, last FY
- +13.8%
- Net income, 12 months
- $1.1B
- Net income growth
- +17%12 months vs before
Profitability
- Gross margin
- 33.1%
- Operating margin
- 14.6%
- Net margin
- 9.5%
- FCF margin
- 11.6%
- Return on equity
- 15%
- Return on invested capital
- 11%
Balance sheet
- Cash & short-term inv.
- $797M
- Total debt
- $5.5B
- Net cash
- −$4.8B
- Debt / equity
- 0.73×
- Interest coverage
- n/ainterest expense not tagged in SEC data
Cash flow & returns
- Free cash flow, 12 months
- $1.4B
- FCF growth, 12 months
- −1%
- Dividend yield
- 1.31%$369M paid
- Payout ratio
- 33%
- Buybacks, 12 months
- $552M2.0% of market cap
- Share count, 1 year
- −0.9%diluted shares vs a year ago
- Stock-based comp
- $88M
Trailing 12 months to Sep 30, 2026; balance sheet at Sep 30, 2026. From Quest Diagnostics’s SEC filings. Sparklines show up to six fiscal years. n/a means we don’t hold that number, with the reason. How each is computed.
Valuation details
DCF $202.89 · MV $245.59 · FCF value $312.51
Assumes 3.7% growth for 5 years (revenue grew 3.7% a year FY22–FY25), fading to 3%; 9.5% discount rate, 3% terminal growth. FCF base $12.28 a share (trailing 12 months to Sep 30, 2026), from the 10-Q filed Oct 23, 2026. Net debt $4.8B, not deducted.
Setup & signals
No setup armed
No setup armed, so there’s no trigger or stop to track yet. Reversal signal rules only arm once a company is in a dip.
Momentum & 52-week range
RSI 68 · 5 days +4.1%
The business
FCF $1.4B · Sales +10%
- Free cash flow, 12 months$1.4B
- Free-cash-flow yield5.0%
- Free-cash-flow margin12%
- Gross margin33%
- Operating margin15%
- Return on invested capital10%
- Return on equity15%
- Sales growth (latest quarter vs year-ago quarter)+10%
- Net debt / EBITDA2.3×
Information only, not investment advice. Fair value estimates and talking points are rule-based model output from public data and can be wrong; stop levels are reference points, not orders. How every number is computed.
Get a text when DGX fires a reversal signal
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