Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fifteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, ten have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $255.92.

LH has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Laboratory Co. of America from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $250.00 to $240.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $282.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Barclays lifted their target price on Laboratory Co. of America from $234.00 to $249.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd.

Laboratory Co. of America Price Performance

LH opened at $239.67 on Monday. Laboratory Co. of America has a 52-week low of $191.97 and a 52-week high of $247.99. The company has a 50 day moving average of $226.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $217.14. The company has a market cap of $20.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $3.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.48 by $0.02. Laboratory Co. of America had a return on equity of 15.27% and a net margin of 3.43%. The firm had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.26 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. Laboratory Co. of America’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Laboratory Co. of America will post 14.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Laboratory Co. of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th. Laboratory Co. of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.71%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Adam H. Schechter sold 6,189 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.47, for a total transaction of $1,506,835.83. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 87,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,289,260.27. This represents a 6.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Kerrii B. Anderson sold 1,000 shares of Laboratory Co. of America stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.00, for a total value of $230,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,722 shares in the company, valued at $3,156,060. This represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LH. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 0.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,726,627 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $832,827,000 after buying an additional 25,469 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Laboratory Co. of America by 1.5% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,978,686 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $442,197,000 after purchasing an additional 29,046 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,964,743 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $437,561,000 after buying an additional 13,298 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in Laboratory Co. of America by 16.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,865,460 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $416,893,000 after acquiring an additional 263,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 135.0% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,609,826 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $327,616,000 after purchasing an additional 924,881 shares in the last quarter. 95.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Laboratory Co. of America

Labcorp Holdings Inc provides laboratory services. It operates through two segments, Diagnostics Laboratories and Biopharma Laboratory Services. The company offers various tests, such as blood chemistry analyses, urinalyses, blood cell counts, thyroid, PAP, hemoglobin A1C and vitamin D, prostate-specific antigens, sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis C, microbiology cultures and procedures, and alcohol and other substance-abuse tests.