LH vs. EXAS, NTRA, AVTR, BMRN, HOLX, COO, ALNY, WAT, GMAB, and PHG
Should you be buying Laboratory Co. of America stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Laboratory Co. of America include Exact Sciences (EXAS), Natera (NTRA), Avantor (AVTR), BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN), Hologic (HOLX), Cooper Companies (COO), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Waters (WAT), Genmab A/S (GMAB), and Koninklijke Philips (PHG). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) and Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and community ranking.
Laboratory Co. of America presently has a consensus target price of $243.14, suggesting a potential upside of 22.55%. Exact Sciences has a consensus target price of $97.44, suggesting a potential upside of 65.57%. Given Exact Sciences' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Exact Sciences is more favorable than Laboratory Co. of America.
95.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.8% of Exact Sciences shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Exact Sciences shares are owned 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 net margin of 3.52% compared to Exact Sciences' net margin of -8.17%. Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity of 14.68% beat Exact Sciences' return on equity.
Exact Sciences received 347 more outperform votes than Laboratory Co. of America when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.40% of users gave Exact Sciences an outperform vote while only 64.10% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote.
Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exact Sciences has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Laboratory Co. of America had 27 more articles in the media than Exact Sciences. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America and 6 mentions for Exact Sciences. Exact Sciences' average media sentiment score of 1.15 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 0.36 indicating that Exact Sciences is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Laboratory Co. of America has higher revenue and earnings than Exact Sciences. Exact Sciences 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.
Summary
Laboratory Co. of America and Exact Sciences tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding LH 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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