DGX vs. LH, NTRA, EXAS, RDNT, BGNE, BMRN, NBIX, AVTR, VTRS, and HOLX
Should you be buying Quest Diagnostics stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Quest Diagnostics include Laboratory Co. of America (LH), Natera (NTRA), Exact Sciences (EXAS), RadNet (RDNT), BeiGene (BGNE), BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN), Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX), Avantor (AVTR), Viatris (VTRS), and Hologic (HOLX). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) and Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.
95.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.1% of Quest Diagnostics shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Quest Diagnostics shares are owned 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.
In the previous week, Quest Diagnostics had 16 more articles in the media than Laboratory Co. of America. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for Quest Diagnostics and 13 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America. Quest Diagnostics' average media sentiment score of 1.00 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 0.40 indicating that Laboratory Co. of America is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Laboratory Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Quest Diagnostics pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 57.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Quest Diagnostics pays out 38.2% 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 increased 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, 64.10% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 49.48% of users gave Quest Diagnostics an outperform vote.
Quest Diagnostics has a net margin of 9.11% compared to Quest Diagnostics' net margin of 3.52%. Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity of 15.52% beat Quest Diagnostics' return on equity.
Quest Diagnostics has lower revenue, but higher earnings 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.
Laboratory Co. of America currently has a consensus price target of $243.14, indicating a potential upside of 15.46%. Quest Diagnostics has a consensus price target of $146.17, indicating a potential upside of 1.27%. Given Quest Diagnostics' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Quest Diagnostics.
Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quest Diagnostics has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Laboratory Co. of America beats Quest Diagnostics 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 DGX 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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