Quest Diagnostics Inc. DGX, +5.29% reported Thursday third-quarter profit and revenue that fell from a year ago but beat expectations, as base business performance rebounding in the latter part of the quarter to help offset inflationary pressure and declining COVID-19 volumes. The health diagnostics information services company’s stock was still inactive in the premarket. Net income fell to $256 million, or $2.17 a share, from $505 million, or $4.02 a share, in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted earnings per share fell 40.4% to $2.36, but beat the FactSet consensus of $2.16. Revenue fell 10.4% to $2.49 billion, but was above the FactSet consensus of $2.35 billion, as base business revenue rose 5.1% to $2.17 billion while COVID-19 testing revenue dropped 55.4% to $316 million. For 2022, the company raised its guidance ranges for adjusted EPS to $9.75 to $9.95 from $9.55 to $9.95 and for revenue to $9.72 billion to $9.86 billion from $9.50 billion to $9.75 billion. The stock has lost 6.1% over the past three months while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.50% has declined 6.7%.
