Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (LH) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.72 on March 12th

Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of 0.72 per share by the medical research company on Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.23%.

Laboratory Co. of America has a dividend payout ratio of 16.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Laboratory Co. of America to earn $15.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.0%.

Laboratory Co. of America Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE LH opened at $234.18 on Friday. Laboratory Co. of America has a fifty-two week low of $191.97 and a fifty-two week high of $247.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $234.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $224.32.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $3.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion during 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%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Laboratory Co. of America will post 14.52 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. HSBC raised shares of Laboratory Co. of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. Evercore ISI upgraded Laboratory Co. of America from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $260.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $260.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Laboratory Co. of America

In other Laboratory Co. of America news, CEO Adam H. Schechter sold 6,189 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $243.47, for a total transaction of $1,506,835.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 87,441 shares in the company, valued at $21,289,260.27. The trade was a 6.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CMO Amy B. Summy sold 3,672 shares of Laboratory Co. of America stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.91, for a total value of $877,277.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 4,318 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,031,613.38. The trade was a 45.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,572 shares of company stock valued at $6,145,209 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

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.