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 media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, community ranking, dividends and earnings.

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%

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of 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. 0.8% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of Chemed shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts recommend LH or CHE?

Laboratory Co. of America presently has a consensus price target of $268.77, suggesting a potential upside of 22.79%. Chemed has a consensus price target of $667.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.90%. 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)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87
Chemed	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

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 1.3%. 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 increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in LH or CHE?

Laboratory Co. of America received 292 more outperform votes than Chemed when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.01% 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 626 64.01%	Underperform Votes 352 35.99%
Chemed	Outperform Votes 334 63.50%	Underperform Votes 192 36.50%

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	1.41	$746M	$8.82	24.82
Chemed	$2.43B	3.49	$272.51M	$19.91	29.16

Does the media refer more to LH or CHE?

In the previous week, Chemed had 1 more articles in the media than Laboratory Co. of America. MarketBeat recorded 24 mentions for Chemed and 23 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America. Chemed's average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 0.99 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	16 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Chemed	19 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, LH or CHE?

Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chemed has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Chemed beats Laboratory Co. of America on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.