StockNews.com Upgrades Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) to “Buy”

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

LH has been the subject of several other reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $261.00 to $277.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Barclays increased their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $213.00 to $249.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Laboratory Co. of America from $240.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $247.42.

Laboratory Co. of America Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of Laboratory Co. of America stock opened at $228.80 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.04, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $212.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $210.47. Laboratory Co. of America has a 12-month low of $191.97 and a 12-month high of $238.46.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The medical research company reported $3.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.78 by $0.16. Laboratory Co. of America had a return on equity of 15.39% and a net margin of 3.60%. The company had revenue of $3.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.19 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. Laboratory Co. of America’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Laboratory Co. of America will post 14.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Laboratory Co. of America news, EVP Lance Berberian sold 12,093 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.10, for a total transaction of $2,770,506.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 15,921 shares in the company, valued at $3,647,501.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Lance Berberian sold 12,093 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $229.10, for a total transaction of $2,770,506.30. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 15,921 shares in the company, valued at $3,647,501.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Kerrii B. Anderson sold 586 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.00, for a total value of $131,850.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 14,722 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,312,450. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 29,679 shares of company stock worth $6,716,306 over the last three months. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Laboratory Co. of America

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LH. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Laboratory Co. of America during the fourth quarter worth $291,045,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 135.0% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,609,826 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $327,616,000 after acquiring an additional 924,881 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 58.8% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,613,854 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $352,563,000 after acquiring an additional 597,571 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 25.4% in the second quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,949,640 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $396,771,000 after acquiring an additional 395,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Select Equity Group L.P. bought a new position in Laboratory Co. of America in the second quarter valued at about $73,928,000. Institutional investors own 95.94% of the company’s stock.

About Laboratory Co. of America

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings operates as a life sciences company that provides vital information to help doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, and patients make clear and confident decisions. It operates in two segments, Labcorp Diagnostics (Dx) and Biopharma Laboratory Services (BLS).