Laboratory Co. of America (LH) Competitors

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 contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and community ranking.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of DGX or LH?

88.1% of Quest Diagnostics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Quest Diagnostics shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned 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.

Which has more risk and volatility, DGX or LH?

Quest Diagnostics has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, DGX or LH?

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.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Quest Diagnostics	$9.87B	1.88	$871M	$7.69	21.70
Laboratory Co. of America	$13.01B	1.44	$746M	$8.82	25.41

Is DGX or LH more profitable?

Quest Diagnostics has a net margin of 8.80% compared to Laboratory Co. of America's net margin of 5.73%. Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity of 15.29% beat Quest Diagnostics' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Quest Diagnostics	8.80%	15.07%	6.72%
Laboratory Co. of America	5.73%	15.29%	7.01%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in DGX or LH?

Laboratory Co. of America received 83 more outperform votes than Quest Diagnostics when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.01% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 49.27% of users gave Quest Diagnostics an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Quest Diagnostics	Outperform Votes 543 49.27%	Underperform Votes 559 50.73%
Laboratory Co. of America	Outperform Votes 626 64.01%	Underperform Votes 352 35.99%

Does the media favor DGX or LH?

In the previous week, Laboratory Co. of America had 6 more articles in the media than Quest Diagnostics. MarketBeat recorded 29 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America and 23 mentions for Quest Diagnostics. Quest Diagnostics' average media sentiment score of 1.13 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 0.93 indicating that Quest Diagnostics is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Quest Diagnostics	15 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Laboratory Co. of America	16 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate DGX or LH?

Quest Diagnostics presently has a consensus price target of $181.33, suggesting a potential upside of 8.65%. Laboratory Co. of America has a consensus price target of $268.77, suggesting a potential upside of 19.91%. Given Laboratory Co. of America's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Quest Diagnostics.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Quest Diagnostics	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.69
Laboratory Co. of America	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.87

Is DGX or LH a better dividend stock?

Quest Diagnostics pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Laboratory Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Quest Diagnostics pays out 41.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 32.7% 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 14 consecutive years. Quest Diagnostics is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Laboratory Co. of America beats Quest Diagnostics on 15 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.