Raised full-year revenue and EPS guidance due to strong Q1 momentum.
Quest Diagnostics delivered a strong Q1 FY2026 with 9.2% revenue growth, driven by broad-based organic demand, advanced diagnostics (Alzheimer's testing doubled), and consumer health partnerships. Management raised full-year revenue and EPS guidance, citing continued momentum. Key cross-company signals include new partnerships with Guardant Health and Google, and commentary on health plan pricing pressure on hospital labs. Organic volume grew 10.8%; ex-Fresenius/Corwell, core organic volume was 3.8%.
Buzzberg readRaised full-year revenue and EPS guidance due to strong Q1 momentum.Quest Diagnostics delivered a strong Q1 FY2026 with 9.2% revenue growth, driven by broad-based organic demand, advanced diagnostics (Alzheimer's testing doubled), and consumer health partnerships. Management raised full-year revenue and EPS guidance, citing continued momentum. Key cross-company signals include new partnerships with Guardant Health and Google, and commentary on health plan pricing pressure on hospital labs. Organic volume grew 10.8%; ex-Fresenius/Corwell, core organic volume was 3.8%.Read full analysisCollapse analysis
Quest Diagnostics delivered a strong Q1 FY2026 with 9.2% revenue growth, driven by broad-based organic demand, advanced diagnostics (Alzheimer's testing doubled), and consumer health partnerships. Management raised full-year revenue and EPS guidance, citing continued momentum. Key cross-company signals include new partnerships with Guardant Health and Google, and commentary on health plan pricing pressure on hospital labs. Organic volume grew 10.8%; ex-Fresenius/Corwell, core organic volume was 3.8%.
Advanced diagnostics (Alzheimer's, cardiometabolic) and consumer health (questhealth.com and wearable partnerships) drove test mix and revenue per requisition up 2.5% ex-Fresenius/Corwell.
Project Nova costs shifting to H2 (25c dilution for FY); fuel costs added $7-10M headwind.
Revenue$2.895B
+3% QoQ
EPS$2.50
+3% QoQ
Gross margin32.54%
reported
Op margin13.78%
reported
What changed this quarter
01
Guidance
Raised full-year revenue and EPS guidance due to strong Q1 momentum.
Guidance · revenue to $11.84B
02
Demand
Alzheimer's blood test franchise more than doubled year-over-year.
Management expressed strong confidence in growth, raised full-year guidance, and emphasized positive momentum across key channels and innovation areas.
03
AI
AI in customer service boosted productivity by 40%.
Management highlighted growing use of AI in labs and customer service, with a 40% productivity boost in customer service agents and the rollout of an AI companion in MyQuest, powered by Google Gemini. They emphasized AI's role in productivity and patient engagement, though no…
04
Demand
Organic volume growth strong at 10.8%, excluding collaborations was 3.8%.
Alzheimer's blood test franchise more than doubled year-over-year.. Management expressed strong confidence in growth, raised full-year guidance, and emphasized positive momentum across key channels and innovation areas.
AI, capex & demand read
AI
Platform & monetization
Management highlighted growing use of AI in labs and customer service, with a 40% productivity boost in customer service agents and the rollout of an AI companion in MyQuest, powered by Google Gemini. They emphasized AI's role in productivity and patient engagement, though no specific monetization strategy was discussed.
Demand
Bookings & conversion
Alzheimer's blood test franchise more than doubled year-over-year.. Management expressed strong confidence in growth, raised full-year guidance, and emphasized positive momentum across key channels and innovation areas.
Capex
Investment and capacity
Capital expenditures guidance for 2026 remains approximately $550 million, with a significant portion directed towards esoteric labs to support advanced diagnostics growth. This reflects increased investment in capacity for high-growth clinical areas.
Tone · Upbeat
Management expressed strong confidence in growth, raised full-year guidance, and emphasized positive momentum across key channels and innovation areas.
Supply-chain alpha
A1
Quest management noted that health plans are increasingly questioning paying hospital outreach labs 200-300% of the rates paid to independent labs, signaling a shift in pricing power away from hospital systems.
Quest provides lab testing for Fresenius dialysis clinics; this relationship contributes significantly to volume but has a dilutive effect on revenue per requisition.
“Fresenius Medical Care and Corwell Health contributed approximately 7% to organic volume growth in the quarter.”
… our strategy. Consolidated revenues were $2.9 billion, up 9.2% versus the prior year, and consolidated organic revenues grew by 9% in the quarter. Revenues for diagnostic information services were up 9.4% compared to the prior year, reflecting strong organic growth in our physician, hospital, and consumer channels. Our total volume measured by the number of requisitions increased 10.9% versus the first quarter of 2025, with organic volume up by 10.8%. Fresenius Medical Care and Corwell Health contributed approximately 7% to organic volume growth in the quarter. Our organic volume growth in the quarter was 3.8%, excluding the favorable impact from these two relationships. As expected, Fresenius Medical Care and Corwell Health's business mix impacted total revenue per requisition, which was down 1.3% compared to the prior year. As a reminder, the business mix from these two collaborations includes a greater proportion of routine tests than most of our clinical testing. Excluding this business mix impact, total revenue per requisition increased by approximately 2.5%. Unit price reimbursement was relatively flat, consistent with our expectations. Reported operating income in the …
Quest will collect blood samples for Guardant's colon cancer test and list it on their menu; early adoption is underway but volumes are not yet material.
“we announced a partnership to distribute, do blood collections for the GARDENT colon cancer CRC test.”
NoahAnalyst covering for Tycho Peterson, Jefferies
Hi, team. This is Noah on for Tyco. I wanted to ask a few on oncology. I believe the partnership with Garden for Shield went live about a month ago, if you could speak to early adoption there. And just on Haystack, what should we be expecting in terms of the phasing of EPS contribution throughout the year and kind of getting to break even? Thanks.
Management answer
Jim DavisChairman, Chief Executive Officer and President
Yeah, thanks, Noah. Yes, we announced a partnership to distribute, do blood collections for the GARDENT colon cancer CRC test. And so it started in the quarter. We are listing the tests on our test menu so that Quest physicians can order that test. And patients, regardless if it came from a Quest physician or another physician, patients can bring that requisition to a Quest PSC, and we'll draw the blood and send the specimen on to Garden's lab. I would say it's early. We just got going in the middle part of the quarter, so I can't make a comment yet on the volumes, but it's certainly starting to take hold. On the HACE-DAC margin profile, Sam, I'll ask you to comment on that.
Quest management noted that health plans are increasingly questioning paying hospital outreach labs 200-300% of the rates paid to independent labs, signaling a shift in pricing power away from hospital systems. — If health plans normalize rates, it could benefit Quest and LabCorp by reducing hospital competition on price, potentially accelerating hospital lab outsourcing.
Thanks very much, and good morning. I just was wondering, the current M&A environment, I appreciate that there's nothing in your guidance for 26, but are you seeing anything different? Are you seeing any incremental opportunities in the markets? I heard your comments earlier around hospitals and their need to submit their rates. Is that changing any of their views around the potential for reimbursement cuts for Medicare going forward? So just anything on an update on the M&A side would be helpful. Thank you.
Management answer
Jim DavisChairman, Chief Executive Officer and President
Yeah, thanks, Lisa. The M&A funnel is good. We have a mix of various health system outreach types of deals that are there. And there's not a ton, as you know, of remaining independent labs across the country, but there's still some out there and we still, you know, take a look and sometimes they proactively come to us. I don't think that the Medicare reimbursement changes are are affecting a hospital's view of their outreach business um you got to remember in general medicare is our best payer here at quest diagnostics and in general it's the worst payer for a health system so if the worst worst payer you know goes down a little bit in pricing i don't think that affects your viewpoint on outreach for What I do think affects their viewpoint on outreach is the commercial view of the lab market and the lab industry. And I think you've got a lot of really smart health plans that are starting to wake up and say, hey, why am I paying these health system labs 2% to 300% of what we pay to the leading independents across the country? And furthermore, that 2% to 300% price premium that they get It affects patients. It affects co-pays. It affects co-deductibles. It affects employers who are paying for this health care. And so there's nothing easier to get a quick hit, a quick win from an employer standpoint, from a patient standpoint, is to normalize these rates. And we strongly advocate that health plans ought to pay all labs the same amount of money for outreach work. It doesn't do anyone any good to penalize patients and penalize employers who are paid for the majority of the healthcare costs in this country to reimburse some labs to the 300% of what the two leading independents are getting paid.
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