CHE vs. LH, DGX, DVA, RCM, CRVL, AMED, AMN, MD, CCRN, and OPCH
Should you be buying Chemed stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Chemed include Laboratory Co. of America (LH), Quest Diagnostics (DGX), DaVita (DVA), R1 RCM (RCM), CorVel (CRVL), Amedisys (AMED), AMN Healthcare Services (AMN), Pediatrix Medical Group (MD), Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN), and Option Care Health (OPCH).
Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) and Chemed (NYSE:CHE) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, community ranking and profitability.
Laboratory Co. of America has higher revenue and earnings than Chemed. Chemed is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Laboratory Co. of America, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Laboratory Co. of America presently has a consensus price target of $241.86, suggesting a potential upside of 23.02%. Chemed has a consensus price target of $673.50, suggesting a potential upside of 23.88%. Given Laboratory Co. of America's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Chemed is more favorable than Laboratory Co. of America.
Chemed has a net margin of 12.36% compared to Chemed's net margin of 3.52%. Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity of 30.52% beat Chemed's return on equity.
95.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.9% of Chemed shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Chemed shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.04, suggesting that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chemed has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its stock price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Laboratory Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Chemed pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 57.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Chemed pays out 8.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Laboratory Co. of America has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Laboratory Co. of America is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
In the previous week, Laboratory Co. of America had 2 more articles in the media than Chemed. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America and 9 mentions for Chemed. Laboratory Co. of America's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Chemed's score of 0.80 indicating that Chemed is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Laboratory Co. of America received 272 more outperform votes than Chemed when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.11% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 63.46% of users gave Chemed an outperform vote.
Summary
Laboratory Co. of America beats Chemed on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CHE and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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