Quest Diagnostics Incorporated

Quest Diagnostics runs medical laboratories. Doctors and hospitals order tests on blood, swabs and other samples, and Quest performs the tests and reports results. The company is based in Secaucus, New Jersey. It says it serves about one-third of US adults each year, plus about half of the country's physicians and hospitals. It is paid by health plans, by government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and by patients themselves. Net revenue was $11.0 billion in 2025.

Hospitals are a major source of business. In 2025 Quest earned about $1.2 billion from reference testing, meaning tests that hospitals send out because their own labs don't perform them. It earned about $800 million in revenue and fees from Collaborative Lab Solutions, which helps hospitals run their own labs. It also acquires hospitals' outreach lab businesses, which test patients who are not admitted, and runs joint ventures with health systems.

For patients, Quest has 2,400 patient service centers (walk-in sites where samples are collected), many of them inside large retail stores. It also sells more than 150 tests directly to consumers through QuestHealth.com. Its Advanced Diagnostics line covers specialized tests that can pay more than routine ones, in areas such as cancer, brain health, autoimmune disease, and women's health and genetics. Certain of these tests brought in over $1 billion in 2025 and grew at a double-digit rate. Quest focuses on the US but also serves customers abroad.

• In Q3 FY2026 (ended Sep 30, 2026), revenue was $3.10B, up 10% from a year earlier, and net income was $312.0M (+27.3%).
• For fiscal 2025, revenue was $11.04B (+11.8% year over year; +3.2% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 9% net margin.

• Over FY2021–FY2025: $4.48B in buybacks and $1.61B in dividends.
• At least 9 consecutive annual increases: every fiscal year in the SEC data (FY2016–FY2025) shows an increase; the true streak may be longer.
• Regular dividends per share grew +7.4% a year over 5 years (FY2020–FY2025).
• Dividends took 35.6% of earnings and 26% of free cash flow in the latest fiscal year.
• Shares outstanding changed -7.9% from Jan 31, 2022 to Oct 15, 2026.

Rank among 1514 US companies

Market value at each year end

Quest Diagnostics Incorporated’s market value went from $12.74B at the end of 2016 to $27.59B on Nov 2, 2026, about 2.2 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is up 43%.

Form 4 filings from 2025-10-29 to 2026-10-29 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 8 sales ($12.2M), 8 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.

Large shareholders (13G filings)

ETFs with the most weight in DGX

1. Medicare and Medicaid keep cutting lab payments. Government payers have taken steps to cut both how often tests are used and how much they pay per test. Medicare's lab payment rules are in flux, so Quest's prices could fall.
2. Health plans want to pay less. Health plans also try to cut testing and payment rates. Payment is shifting toward value-based deals, such as UnitedHealthcare's Preferred Lab Network, which tie pay to cost and quality rather than volume.
3. Hospitals may keep more testing in-house. Hospitals compete for testing of patients outside the hospital. They keep acquiring physician practices and can steer those tests to their own labs. Smaller regional labs and physician-office labs add more price competition.
4. New technology could move tests out of labs. Quick point-of-care tests in doctors' offices, home tests, digital pathology and AI tools could let hospitals, clinicians or patients do more testing themselves. That would shrink the volume sent to Quest.
5. Billing errors can bring heavy fines. Billing government health programs involves complex rules. Mistakes, or breaking these or other healthcare laws, could bring substantial fines and penalties and could restrict parts of Quest's business.
6. Debt limits financial flexibility. Total debt was about $5.55 billion against $797 million of cash and investments as of September 30, 2026. That debt could limit Quest's room to invest, make acquisitions or absorb a downturn.

• Oct 22, 2026 Other company announcement
• Oct 22, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Oct 6, 2026 Executive or board change
• Jul 23, 2026 Quarterly results released
• May 21, 2026 Shareholder vote results
• May 8, 2026 Major agreement signed
• May 1, 2026 Other company announcement
• Apr 21, 2026 Quarterly results released
• Mar 12, 2026 Executive or board change; Investor presentation or announcement
• Feb 10, 2026 Quarterly results released; Other company announcement

Quest Diagnostics has raised its dividend for at least nine straight years. Every fiscal year from 2016 to 2025 in its SEC filings shows an increase. Dividends per share grew from $2.18 in 2020 to $3.12 in 2025, about 7.4% a year. The 2025 dividend used 35.6% of earnings and 26% of free cash flow (the cash left after running and investing in the business). The yield was a modest 1.38% as of October 28, 2026. Buybacks were bigger: $4.48 billion over fiscal 2021–2025, against $1.61 billion in dividends. They helped cut the share count 7.9% from January 2022 to October 2026.

The stock has fallen hard in downturns but recovered each time. It dropped 29% in the 2008 crisis, 35% in the 2020 COVID crash and 25% in the 2022 bear market. It took about eight months, one month and 23 months after each low, respectively, to regain its prior high. Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds.