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Mullen Automotive Makes Deliveries; Short-Squeeze Possible
Buy THIS stock before Taiwan is attacked (Ad)
Schwab’s Drop This Week Could Be The Opening Of The Year (Again)
What is a Gold IRA, and is it a Viable Investment?
This Tech Stock Could be the Next Amazon (Ad)pixel
Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities
Walmart Shares Jump on Evercore Analyst Upgrade 
This Tech Stock Could be the Next Amazon (Ad)pixel
Is Braze, Inc Ready To Rocket Higher? 
Can Frontline Maintain This Momentum?
S&P 500   4,109.31
DOW   33,274.15
QQQ   320.93
Mullen Automotive Makes Deliveries; Short-Squeeze Possible
Buy THIS stock before Taiwan is attacked (Ad)
Schwab’s Drop This Week Could Be The Opening Of The Year (Again)
What is a Gold IRA, and is it a Viable Investment?
This Tech Stock Could be the Next Amazon (Ad)pixel
Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities
Walmart Shares Jump on Evercore Analyst Upgrade 
This Tech Stock Could be the Next Amazon (Ad)pixel
Is Braze, Inc Ready To Rocket Higher? 
Can Frontline Maintain This Momentum?
S&P 500   4,109.31
DOW   33,274.15
QQQ   320.93
Mullen Automotive Makes Deliveries; Short-Squeeze Possible
Buy THIS stock before Taiwan is attacked (Ad)
Schwab’s Drop This Week Could Be The Opening Of The Year (Again)
What is a Gold IRA, and is it a Viable Investment?
This Tech Stock Could be the Next Amazon (Ad)pixel
Closing prices for crude oil, gold and other commodities
Walmart Shares Jump on Evercore Analyst Upgrade 
This Tech Stock Could be the Next Amazon (Ad)pixel
Is Braze, Inc Ready To Rocket Higher? 
Can Frontline Maintain This Momentum?
NYSE:LH

Laboratory Co. of America - LH Competitors

$229.42
+4.72 (+2.10%)
(As of 03/31/2023 12:00 AM ET)
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Compare
Today's Range
$225.81
$229.72
50-Day Range
$213.32
$257.83
52-Week Range
$200.32
$280.72
Volume
598,022 shs
Average Volume
601,039 shs
Market Capitalization
$20.30 billion
P/E Ratio
16.55
Dividend Yield
1.26%
Price Target
$283.50

LH vs. DGX, EXAS, NTRA, HOLX, CAH, BAX, STE, ARGX, COO, and BMRN

Should you be buying Laboratory Co. of America stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Laboratory Co. of America include Quest Diagnostics (DGX), Exact Sciences (EXAS), Natera (NTRA), Hologic (HOLX), Cardinal Health (CAH), Baxter International (BAX), STERIS (STE), argenx (ARGX), Cooper Companies (COO), and BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.

Laboratory Co. of America vs.

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) and Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, dividends, risk, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Quest Diagnostics has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

In the previous week, Quest Diagnostics had 5 more articles in the media than Laboratory Co. of America. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Quest Diagnostics and 6 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America. Laboratory Co. of America's average media sentiment score of 1.07 beat Quest Diagnostics' score of 1.05 indicating that Laboratory Co. of America is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Quest Diagnostics
8 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
1 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Laboratory Co. of America
4 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
2 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Quest Diagnostics has a net margin of 9.57% compared to Laboratory Co. of America's net margin of 8.60%. Quest Diagnostics' return on equity of 18.84% beat Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Quest Diagnostics 9.57% 18.84% 8.94%
Laboratory Co. of America 8.60% 17.68% 9.01%

Laboratory Co. of America received 75 more outperform votes than Quest Diagnostics when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.25% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 50.55% of users gave Quest Diagnostics an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
Quest DiagnosticsOutperform Votes
509
50.55%
Underperform Votes
498
49.45%
Laboratory Co. of AmericaOutperform Votes
584
65.25%
Underperform Votes
311
34.75%

Quest Diagnostics pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Laboratory Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Quest Diagnostics pays out 33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 20.8% 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. Quest Diagnostics has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Quest Diagnostics is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

88.8% of Quest Diagnostics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.7% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of Quest Diagnostics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Laboratory Co. of America has higher revenue and earnings than Quest Diagnostics. Laboratory Co. of America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Quest Diagnostics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Quest Diagnostics$9.88 billion1.59$946 million$7.9217.86
Laboratory Co. of America$14.88 billion1.36$1.28 billion$13.8616.55

Quest Diagnostics presently has a consensus target price of $150.91, suggesting a potential upside of 6.66%. Laboratory Co. of America has a consensus target price of $283.50, suggesting a potential upside of 23.57%. Given Laboratory Co. of America's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Quest Diagnostics.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Quest Diagnostics
1 Sell rating(s)
6 Hold rating(s)
3 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.20
Laboratory Co. of America
0 Sell rating(s)
2 Hold rating(s)
7 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.78

Summary

Laboratory Co. of America beats Quest Diagnostics on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.

New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

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.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

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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LH vs. The Competition

MetricLaboratory Co. of AmericaMedical laboratories IndustryMedical SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$20.30B$1.75B$4.42B$14.68B
Dividend Yield1.31%2.66%2.43%3.87%
P/E Ratio16.5512.40106.4121.72
Price / Sales1.3648.753,577.5310.82
Price / Cash7.1611.6228.3224.41
Price / Book2.013.754.606.89
Net Income$1.28B-$111.93M$114.92M$867.68M
7 Day Performance5.04%0.69%2.46%4.43%
1 Month Performance-4.15%-9.05%-5.22%-3.47%
1 Year Performance-12.99%-25.74%-14.07%-11.70%

Laboratory Co. of America Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
DGX
Quest Diagnostics
2.9202 of 5 stars
$138.48
-0.2%
$150.91
+9.0%
+3.4%$15.42B$9.88B17.4849,000Short Interest ↓
Positive News
EXAS
Exact Sciences
2.4919 of 5 stars
$67.11
+1.2%
$74.14
+10.5%
-3.0%$11.96B$2.08B-18.966,400Short Interest ↓
Positive News
NTRA
Natera
2.2426 of 5 stars
$56.90
+5.1%
$79.27
+39.3%
+36.5%$6.45B$820.22M-10.223,018Insider Selling
HOLX
Hologic
2.074 of 5 stars
$79.20
+0.5%
$84.08
+6.2%
+5.1%$19.53B$4.86B20.206,944
CAH
Cardinal Health
2.8574 of 5 stars
$74.60
+2.9%
$80.33
+7.7%
+33.2%$19.22B$181.36B13.6946,500Analyst Report
Short Interest ↓
News Coverage
BAX
Baxter International
2.9713 of 5 stars
$40.54
+1.7%
$55.14
+36.0%
-47.7%$20.49B$15.11B-8.3960,000Analyst Report
Short Interest ↑
STE
STERIS
2.3555 of 5 stars
$187.46
+1.2%
$232.83
+24.2%
-20.9%$18.61B$4.59B-646.3916,422
ARGX
argenx
1.8735 of 5 stars
$376.47
+2.7%
$454.64
+20.8%
+18.2%$20.89B$445.27M-28.67650
COO
Cooper Companies
2.352 of 5 stars
$361.82
+2.0%
$382.60
+5.7%
-10.6%$17.90B$3.31B47.9214,000
BMRN
BioMarin Pharmaceutical
3.2222 of 5 stars
$94.20
+3.0%
$118.15
+25.4%
+26.1%$17.57B$2.10B127.303,082Short Interest ↓
Positive News
This page (NYSE:LH) was last updated on 4/1/2023 by MarketBeat.com Staff