Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the fourteen ratings firms that are covering the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and nine have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $155.91.
LH has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird downgraded shares of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $138.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, February 6th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 5th. Deutsche Bank AG restated a “buy” rating and issued a $170.00 target price on shares of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings in a research note on Wednesday, January 18th. Barclays PLC upped their target price on shares of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 7th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity set a $140.00 target price on shares of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 17th.
In other Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings news, CFO Glenn A. Eisenberg sold 2,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.47, for a total value of $327,681.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,556 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,788,853.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert E. Mittelstaedt, Jr. sold 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.69, for a total transaction of $756,257.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,598,099.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.14% of the company’s stock.
Shares of Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) traded down 1.63% during trading on Thursday, reaching $143.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 839,059 shares. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings has a 52-week low of $119.51 and a 52-week high of $146.63. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $143.16 and a 200-day moving average of $134.51. The stock has a market cap of $14.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.41 and a beta of 0.94.
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The medical research company reported $2.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.13 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings had a net margin of 6.85% and a return on equity of 16.97%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.98 EPS. Analysts predict that Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings will post $9.60 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings Company Profile
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings is a life sciences company that is integrated in guiding patient care, providing clinical laboratory and end-to-end drug development services. The Company operates as a healthcare diagnostics company. The Company operates through two segments: LabCorp Diagnostics (LCD) and Covance Drug Development (CDD).
