LH vs. DGX, EXAS, NTRA, BMRN, AVTR, HOLX, COO, ALNY, WAT, and ILMN
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), BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN), Avantor (AVTR), Hologic (HOLX), Cooper Companies (COO), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Waters (WAT), and Illumina (ILMN). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
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 analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, risk, media sentiment and community ranking.
Quest Diagnostics currently has a consensus price target of $144.18, indicating a potential upside of 10.83%. Laboratory Co. of America has a consensus price target of $243.50, indicating a potential upside of 19.91%. Given Quest Diagnostics' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Quest Diagnostics.
Quest Diagnostics has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Quest Diagnostics has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Laboratory Co. of America. Quest Diagnostics 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.
Quest Diagnostics pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Laboratory Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Quest Diagnostics pays out 37.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 61.7% 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.
Laboratory Co. of America received 79 more outperform votes than Quest Diagnostics when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.09% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 49.62% of users gave Quest Diagnostics an outperform vote.
Quest Diagnostics has a net margin of 9.23% compared to Quest Diagnostics' net margin of 3.24%. Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity of 15.79% beat Quest Diagnostics' return on equity.
88.1% of Quest Diagnostics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Quest Diagnostics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Quest Diagnostics had 6 more articles in the media than Laboratory Co. of America. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Quest Diagnostics and 7 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America. Laboratory Co. of America's average media sentiment score of 0.85 beat Quest Diagnostics' score of 0.81 indicating that Quest Diagnostics is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Quest Diagnostics beats Laboratory Co. of America 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 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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