Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. Grows Position in Labcorp Holdings Inc. $LH

Key Points

• Adage Capital Partners increased its stake in Labcorp Holdings Inc. by 64.4%, now owning approximately $16.32 million worth of shares.
• Labcorp's CEO, Adam H. Schechter, recently sold 5,643 shares at an average price of $266.78, reducing his ownership by 5.70%.
• Analysts have mixed ratings on Labcorp, with a recent downgrade from HSBC reducing the rating from "buy" to "hold," while Truist Financial increased its price target to $310.00.

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. lifted its stake in shares of Labcorp Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LH - Free Report) by 64.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 70,100 shares of the medical research company's stock after purchasing an additional 27,456 shares during the quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. owned 0.08% of Labcorp worth $16,315,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of LH. Brighton Jones LLC bought a new stake in shares of Labcorp in the fourth quarter worth $991,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Labcorp by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 16,453 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $3,773,000 after buying an additional 1,302 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of Labcorp by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 357,588 shares of the medical research company's stock valued at $82,002,000 after buying an additional 7,116 shares during the period. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC raised its position in shares of Labcorp by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 1,390 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $319,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fairview Capital Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Labcorp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Fairview Capital Investment Management LLC now owns 225,840 shares of the medical research company's stock worth $51,790,000 after acquiring an additional 3,978 shares during the period. 95.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Labcorp Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of LH traded up $7.08 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $280.02. The stock had a trading volume of 368,380 shares, compared to its average volume of 433,148. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 1.50 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $265.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $250.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.85. Labcorp Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $209.38 and a 1-year high of $283.47.

Labcorp (NYSE:LH - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The medical research company reported $4.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $4.14 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $3.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.49 billion. Labcorp had a return on equity of 15.45% and a net margin of 5.66%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.94 EPS. Labcorp has set its FY 2025 guidance at 16.050-16.500 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Labcorp Holdings Inc. will post 16.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Labcorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 28th will be given a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 28th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Labcorp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on LH. Robert W. Baird set a $311.00 target price on Labcorp in a report on Monday, August 25th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Labcorp from $283.00 to $306.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. HSBC downgraded shares of Labcorp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $260.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Labcorp from $282.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Labcorp from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, July 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Labcorp presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $290.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Labcorp

In other news, Director Dwight Gary Gilliland sold 2,000 shares of Labcorp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.95, for a total transaction of $529,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 6,656 shares in the company, valued at $1,763,507.20. This trade represents a 23.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Kerrii B. Anderson sold 3,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.00, for a total transaction of $980,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,666 shares in the company, valued at $2,426,480. This represents a 28.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,546 shares of company stock worth $4,207,192. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

Labcorp Profile

Labcorp Holdings, Inc engages in providing medical testing services. The company was founded on April 16, 2024 and is headquartered in Burlington, NC.