Is Quest Diagnostics a Great Dividend Stock?

To me, a great dividend stock means an investment that pays a good yield today and is likely to increase it going forward, with payouts that are stable and safe for the foreseeable future. Without all of those factors, it's hard to consider a dividend great. What we're looking for are reliable, income-producing stocks that you can buy and forget about.

Today, I'll look at whether diagnostics and testing company Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX) falls into that category of a safe dividend stock. I'll take a look at its recent performance to see whether it's worth putting the stock into your portfolio today, or if you're better off looking elsewhere for a quality dividend stock.

Quest currently pays its shareholders a quarterly dividend of $0.56. Annually, that means investors are making $2.24 for each share that they own. With Quest's share price at about $118, that puts its yield at 1.9%. That's right near the 2% average for an S&P 500 stock. That yield is neither under- nor overwhelming, meaning that for the stock to be a great dividend investment, it'll need to do much better in the next section: dividend growth.

Source Fool.com