Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) Issues FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Thursday. The company provided EPS guidance of 14.300-14.700 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 14.560. The company issued revenue guidance of $13.0 billion-$13.1 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $13.0 billion.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on LH shares. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Laboratory Co. of America from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $220.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $245.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Laboratory Co. of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $278.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $251.85.

Laboratory Co. of America Stock Performance

Shares of LH stock traded up $10.17 during trading on Thursday, reaching $230.07. The company had a trading volume of 1,610,091 shares, compared to its average volume of 668,219. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $222.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $212.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.77. Laboratory Co. of America has a one year low of $191.97 and a one year high of $239.50. The company has a market capitalization of $19.39 billion, a PE ratio of 46.29, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.05.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $3.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. Laboratory Co. of America had a return on equity of 15.39% and a net margin of 3.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.38 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Laboratory Co. of America will post 14.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Laboratory Co. of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be given a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 26th. Laboratory Co. of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.95%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Lance Berberian sold 12,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 15,921 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,647,501.10. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Lance Berberian sold 12,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 15,921 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,647,501.10. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Glenn A. Eisenberg sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $223.99, for a total value of $3,359,850.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 31,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,008,423.11. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,679 shares of company stock valued at $6,716,306 in the last three months. Company 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.