Chemed (CHE) Competitors

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) and Chemed (NYSE:CHE) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, community ranking and institutional ownership.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in LH or CHE?

95.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.8% of Chemed shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Chemed shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is LH or CHE more profitable?

Chemed has a net margin of 12.69% compared to Laboratory Co. of America's net margin of 5.73%. Chemed's return on equity of 27.86% beat Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Laboratory Co. of America	5.73%	15.29%	7.01%
Chemed	12.69%	27.86%	19.12%

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LH or CHE?

Laboratory Co. of America received 289 more outperform votes than Chemed when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.03% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 63.50% of users gave Chemed an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Laboratory Co. of America	Outperform Votes 623 64.03%	Underperform Votes 350 35.97%
Chemed	Outperform Votes 334 63.50%	Underperform Votes 192 36.50%

Which has more volatility & risk, LH or CHE?

Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chemed has a beta of 0.43, meaning that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is LH or CHE a better dividend stock?

Laboratory Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Chemed pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 32.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Chemed pays out 10.0% 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. Chemed has raised its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Do analysts recommend LH or CHE?

Laboratory Co. of America presently has a consensus price target of $269.92, suggesting a potential upside of 16.52%. Chemed has a consensus price target of $667.00, suggesting a potential upside of 8.97%. Given Laboratory Co. of America's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Chemed.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Laboratory Co. of America	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86
Chemed	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has better valuation & earnings, LH or CHE?

Laboratory Co. of America has higher revenue and earnings than Chemed. Laboratory Co. of America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Chemed, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Laboratory Co. of America	$13.01B	1.49	$746M	$8.82	26.26
Chemed	$2.43B	3.68	$272.51M	$19.91	30.74

Does the media favor LH or CHE?

In the previous week, Laboratory Co. of America had 5 more articles in the media than Chemed. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America and 10 mentions for Chemed. Chemed's average media sentiment score of 1.56 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 1.39 indicating that Chemed is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Laboratory Co. of America	12 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Chemed	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Summary

Laboratory Co. of America and Chemed tied by winning 11 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.