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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Laboratory Co. of America Competitors List
