In short: Held; sleeve position reaffirmed by inclusion, no new analysis. The other early-June healthcare inclusion named as the sleeve INCY continues, under the same sector call ("healthcare and biotech are entering (or are in) a bullish recovery mode"). No price, rating change or fresh commentary in this issue; see the 2026-JUN-05 POW! and the 2026-AUG-17 hold-the-core update.
In short: Hold the core; the thesis is working and the price is extended. Marked to market: "we recommended Quest Diagnostics on June 5, 2026, at $200.29. The stock is trading today at approximately $236 for a gain of roughly 18% in just over two months, plus the $0.86 quarterly dividend. Considering the S&P's ~6% gain in that time, DGX is a respectable outperformer." The move has a dated cause — "the Q2 earnings report on July 23 was the catalyst, with the stock surging 11.15% on the day" — and the entry has a stated method: Haymaker "missed the key upside range expansion early last year, but we did catch a retracement to near the breakout point not that far above $180. It was also smack dab on the 200-day moving average. Buying relatively close to the resistance penetration spot and at the 200-day is typically a profitable tactic. Fortunately, this was no exception." Forward math: "consensus targets of $239 to $246 imply modest near-term upside, but the Argus and BofA bull case targets of $260 to $265 remain in play if Q3 delivers another beat-and-raise on October 27, which the volume momentum and conservative guidance pattern suggest is likely." Not-yet-in-the-numbers compounders: "the Corewell JV laboratory opening in 2027 and continued double-digit advanced diagnostics growth are the medium-term compounders not yet fully in run-rate numbers." The caveat is not hidden: "the valuation, along with the price chart, is undeniably extended presently. For those looking to book profits, and/or reduce market exposure, booking at least partial profits, like by selling one-third, might be advisable." Net instruction: "we lean toward holding the core position through October 27. Trim only if the position has grown to an uncomfortable share of your portfolio's weight. In our view, the business is still executing precisely as the June thesis described." No rating change; still a Haymaker Buy-list name.
Quest Diagnostics runs the largest network of medical testing laboratories in the United States. When a doctor orders blood work, someone has to draw it, process it and report the result — Quest does that at enormous scale, which is a steady, unglamorous, recession-resistant business.
Haymaker told readers to buy it on June 5th at $200.29. It is now around $236 — up about 18% in a little over two months, plus a quarterly dividend of $0.86 a share — while the S&P 500 rose about 6%. Almost all of that gain came in a single day: the company reported second-quarter results on July 23rd and the stock jumped 11.15%.
The part worth learning is how the purchase was timed. The stock had broken out above an old ceiling around $180 sometime earlier — Hay admits Haymaker missed that move — and then drifted back down to roughly that same level. An old ceiling that a stock has climbed above tends to act as a floor on the way back, and in this case the level also coincided with the 200-day moving average, the average price over the past ten months, which is the line long-term buyers tend to defend. Two supports landing at the same price is the setup Haymaker bought.
From here the honest arithmetic is thin. Wall Street's average target of $239 to $246 is barely above today's price. The more optimistic targets from Argus and Bank of America, $260 to $265, only come into play if the next quarterly report on October 27th beats again and management raises its forecast again — which Hay thinks is likely, because the company has been guiding conservatively. Two things he says are not yet fully reflected in the numbers: a joint-venture laboratory with Corewell Health opening in 2027, and continued double-digit growth in the higher-value specialist tests.
The catch is stated plainly: both the price chart and the valuation are "undeniably extended." So the advice splits in two. On the business, hold your core position through the October 27th report — nothing has gone wrong, and "the business is still executing precisely as the June thesis described." On your portfolio, if the position has grown into an uncomfortably large share of it, or if you want to raise cash generally, selling one-third is a sensible way to bank part of the gain without giving up the thesis.
In short: Pick of the Week — largest US independent lab network (~550k specimens/day, ~2,250 service centers) at ~18× forward EPS / ~5.5% FCF yield after a sell-on-a-beat quarter; fifth straight guidance raise, Fresenius/Corewell adding ~$330M revenue, AI Companion +40% agent productivity. "Gradual accumulators" at current levels or lower; PT $215–225 over 12–18 months. Key risk: a PAMA Medicare-reimbursement cut cycle.
Quest runs the biggest independent network of medical-testing labs in America — the blood panels your doctor orders, plus advanced genomic and cancer testing. It processes about 550,000 patient samples a day through infrastructure (2,250 collection sites, a fleet-and-lab logistics web) that took decades to build and would cost billions to copy. People getting older and sicker means test volumes grow for decades, and no AI chatbot can draw blood.
The stock sold off ~11% even though the company beat earnings and raised guidance for the fifth quarter in a row — the market disliked temporarily thinner margins from new hospital partnerships still ramping up. Haymaker's view: that's accounting optics, not deterioration, so you're buying a steadily compounding business at the cheap end of its usual valuation with a ~5.5% free-cash-flow yield. They're buying gradually here, targeting $215–225 within 12–18 months. The main real risk is government-set Medicare lab reimbursement rates being cut harder than expected.
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