Quest Diagnostics Earnings: Falling Revenue Breaks Streak, Profit Drops

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE:DGX) reported its results for the third quarter. Quest Diagnostics provides diagnostic testing, information, and services to patients, physicians, and others.

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Quest Diagnostics Incorporated Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Net income for Quest Diagnostics Incorporated fell to $163.1 million ($1.01 per share) vs. $171.8 million ($1.07 per share) a year earlier. This is a decline of 5.1% from the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Fell 2.9% to $1.85 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Quest Diagnostics Incorporated fell short of the mean analyst estimate of $1.18 per share. It fell short of the average revenue estimate of $1.94 billion.

Quoting Management: “During the quarter, we increased adjusted operating income and delivered strong cash flow, despite continued soft revenues, thanks in large part to our accelerated Invigorate cost-reduction initiative,” said Steve Rusckowski, President and CEO. “Our new organizational structure and management team, announced last week, will allow us to drive operational excellence and improve our customer focus, which will, over time, enable us to restore growth. We remain focused on increasing shareholder returns through a combination of improved operating performance and disciplined capital deployment.”

Key Stats:

A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of four consecutive quarters of revenue increases. The best quarter in that span was the first quarter, which saw revenue rise 6.3%.

The company fell short of forecasts after beating estimates in the previous two quarters. In the second quarter, it topped the mark by 7 cents, and in the first quarter, it was ahead by 17 cents.

Looking Forward: The average estimate for the fourth quarter remains unchanged at $1.20 a share. Over the past three months, the average estimate for the fiscal year has climbed from $4.57 per to share to $4.60.

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(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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