Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) Plans $0.72 Quarterly Dividend

Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 8th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 1.23%.

Laboratory Co. of America has a payout ratio of 16.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Price Performance

LH stock opened at $234.18 on Thursday. Laboratory Co. of America has a 1 year low of $191.97 and a 1 year high of $247.99. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $19.59 billion, a PE ratio of 45.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $234.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $224.25.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $3.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.48 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.26 billion. Laboratory Co. of America had a return on equity of 15.27% and a net margin of 3.43%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Laboratory Co. of America will post 14.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LH. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $235.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Laboratory Co. of America from $282.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Bank of America lifted their target price on Laboratory Co. of America from $262.00 to $271.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Barclays increased their price target on Laboratory Co. of America from $234.00 to $249.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Laboratory Co. of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $260.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.