Based on the aggregated intelligence of 170,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, medical lab operator Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX ) has earned a respected four-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Quest's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Quest facts
|
Headquarters (founded)
|
Madison, N.J. (1967)
|
|
Market Cap
|
$8.96 billion
|
|
Industry
|
Health care services
|
|
Trailing-12-Month Revenue
|
$7.39 billion
|
|
Management
|
Chairman/CEO Dr. Surya Mohapatra
CFO Robert Hagemann (since 1998)
|
|
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years)
|
20%
|
|
Cash/Debt
|
$994.2 million / $4.22 billion
|
|
Dividend Yield
|
0.7%
|
|
Competitors
|
Bio-Reference Labs (Nasdaq: BRLI )
Lab Corporation of America (NYSE: LH )
|
Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 95% of the 574 members who have rated Quest believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include All-Stars Staka and zycantodan, both of whom are ranked in the top 15% of our community.
Late last year , Staka listed several of Quest's positives:
- Duopoly with LabCorp gives a reasonable moat
- Demographical developments work for them
- Reasonable valuation, reasonable balance sheet
- Defensive stock which shouldn't be battered to much if the crisis comes back
In fact, Quest currently sports a cheapish forward P/E of 11.7. That represents a discount to other health care research plays such as LabCorp (13.8), Bio-Reference Labs (18.3), and Covance (NYSE: CVD ) (18.5).
CAPS All-Star zycantodan elaborates on the bull case:
Clean facilities and well-integrated IT systems from the patient side -- you can schedule appointments online and find locations easily. This significantly cuts down on in-office wait time. All labeling is automated and efficient. I would assume the back-office IT is run as smoothly as the customer-facing side to allow for more efficiencies. ...With aging population need for DGX services will increase.
What do you think about Quest, or any other stock for that matter? If you want to retire rich, you need to put together the best portfolio you can. Owning exceptional stocks is a surefire way to secure your financial future, and on Motley Fool CAPS, thousands of investors are working every day to find them. CAPS is 100% free, so get started!
RSS Headlines
Fool UK