Analysts Set Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) PT at $263.77

Shares of Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twelve have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $265.31.

LH has been the subject of several recent research reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Laboratory Co. of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI upgraded Laboratory Co. of America from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $260.00 to $265.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $275.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Laboratory Co. of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Laboratory Co. of America

In other news, EVP Glenn A. Eisenberg sold 11,711 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $240.43, for a total transaction of $2,815,675.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 31,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,522,814.27. The trade was a 27.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Der Vaart Sandra D. Van sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $239.42, for a total transaction of $239,420.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 2,670 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $639,251.40. This represents a 27.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,383 shares of company stock worth $4,408,373. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Laboratory Co. of America

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LH. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 0.7% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,726,627 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $832,827,000 after acquiring an additional 25,469 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,003,998 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $458,334,000 after acquiring an additional 39,255 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 1.5% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,978,686 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $442,197,000 after acquiring an additional 29,046 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Laboratory Co. of America by 9.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,930,395 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $431,405,000 after purchasing an additional 167,137 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Laboratory Co. of America by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,916,505 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $437,357,000 after purchasing an additional 51,045 shares during the last quarter. 95.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Laboratory Co. of America Price Performance

Shares of LH stock opened at $241.05 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.33, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $236.85 and its 200-day moving average is $230.48. Laboratory Co. of America has a 1 year low of $191.97 and a 1 year high of $258.59.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The medical research company reported $3.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.05. Laboratory Co. of America had a net margin of 5.73% and a return on equity of 15.29%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Laboratory Co. of America will post 15.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Laboratory Co. of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Laboratory Co. of America’s payout ratio is 32.65%.

About Laboratory Co. of America

Labcorp Holdings, Inc engages in providing medical testing services. The company was founded on April 16, 2024 and is headquartered in Burlington, NC.