LH vs. DGX, NTRA, EXAS, BAX, HOLX, ILMN, AVTR, ALNY, COO, and TEVA
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), Natera (NTRA), Exact Sciences (EXAS), Baxter International (BAX), Hologic (HOLX), Illumina (ILMN), Avantor (AVTR), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Cooper Companies (COO), and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA). 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 better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.
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 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.
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.
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 company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Quest Diagnostics currently has a consensus price target of $146.17, indicating a potential upside of 1.27%. Laboratory Co. of America has a consensus price target of $243.14, indicating a potential upside of 15.46%. Given Quest Diagnostics' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Quest Diagnostics.
Quest Diagnostics pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. 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 38.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 57.9% 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 and Laboratory Co. of America has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Quest Diagnostics is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Quest Diagnostics has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Quest Diagnostics had 20 more articles in the media than Laboratory Co. of America. MarketBeat recorded 34 mentions for Quest Diagnostics and 14 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America. Quest Diagnostics' average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 0.46 indicating that Laboratory Co. of America is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
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 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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