Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) Raised to “Buy” at HSBC

HSBC upgraded shares of Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports.

Several other research analysts have also commented on LH. Barclays raised their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $234.00 to $249.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $282.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Laboratory Co. of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $245.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Laboratory Co. of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $255.92.

Laboratory Co. of America Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of LH opened at $227.10 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $222.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $213.22. Laboratory Co. of America has a twelve month low of $191.97 and a twelve month high of $239.50.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $3.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. Laboratory Co. of America had a return on equity of 15.27% and a net margin of 3.43%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.38 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Laboratory Co. of America will post 14.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Laboratory Co. of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.27%. Laboratory Co. of America’s payout ratio is currently 55.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Laboratory Co. of America

In other news, CFO Glenn A. Eisenberg sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.99, for a total transaction of $3,359,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,008,423.11. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Glenn A. Eisenberg sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $223.99, for a total transaction of $3,359,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 31,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,008,423.11. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Kerrii B. Anderson sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $230.00, for a total value of $230,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 13,722 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,156,060. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 30,679 shares of company stock worth $6,946,306 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Laboratory Co. of America

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 2.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 114,488 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $25,012,000 after buying an additional 2,934 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 17.0% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 101,019 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $22,069,000 after purchasing an additional 14,708 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 283.1% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 23,217 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $5,072,000 after purchasing an additional 17,156 shares in the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP raised its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 141.3% during the first quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 29,580 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $6,462,000 after purchasing an additional 17,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Valley Advisor Group Inc. bought a new stake in Laboratory Co. of America during the second quarter worth approximately $473,000. 95.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Laboratory Co. of America

Labcorp Holdings Inc provides laboratory services. It operates through two segments, Diagnostics Laboratories and Biopharma Laboratory Services. The company offers various tests, such as blood chemistry analyses, urinalyses, blood cell counts, thyroid, PAP, hemoglobin A1C and vitamin D, prostate-specific antigens, sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis C, microbiology cultures and procedures, and alcohol and other substance-abuse tests.