LH vs. DGX, DVA, CHE, CRVL, AMED, MD, AMN, CCRN, NTRA, and EXAS
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), DaVita (DVA), Chemed (CHE), CorVel (CRVL), Amedisys (AMED), Pediatrix Medical Group (MD), AMN Healthcare Services (AMN), Cross Country Healthcare (CCRN), Natera (NTRA), and Exact Sciences (EXAS).
Laboratory Co. of America vs.
Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) and Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, community ranking, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.
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 pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Quest Diagnostics pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 32.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Quest Diagnostics pays out 39.0% 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. Quest Diagnostics has raised 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.
In the previous week, Quest Diagnostics had 5 more articles in the media than Laboratory Co. of America. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Quest Diagnostics and 16 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America. Quest Diagnostics' average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 1.19 indicating that Quest Diagnostics is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
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 insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Quest Diagnostics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Laboratory Co. of America currently has a consensus price target of $265.31, suggesting a potential upside of 6.18%. Quest Diagnostics has a consensus price target of $177.69, suggesting a potential upside of 3.05%. Given Laboratory Co. of America's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Quest Diagnostics.
Laboratory Co. of America received 82 more outperform votes than Quest Diagnostics when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.99% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 49.27% of users gave Quest Diagnostics an outperform vote.
Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quest Diagnostics has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
Summary
Laboratory Co. of America beats Quest Diagnostics on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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Media Sentiment Over Time
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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This page (NYSE:LH) was last updated on 2/22/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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