Smithfield Trust Co Purchases Shares of 467 Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH)

Smithfield Trust Co purchased a new stake in Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 467 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $104,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of LH. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Laboratory Co. of America in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. SouthState Corp purchased a new position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Horizon Bancorp Inc. IN purchased a new position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America during the third quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America during the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America during the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.94% of the company’s stock.

Laboratory Co. of America Price Performance

LH opened at $240.42 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $225.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $216.66. The firm has a market cap of $20.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.50, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.05. Laboratory Co. of America Holdings has a twelve month low of $191.97 and a twelve month high of $247.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The medical research company reported $3.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.48 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. Laboratory Co. of America had a net margin of 3.43% and a return on equity of 15.27%. The business’s revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Laboratory Co. of America Holdings will post 14.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Laboratory Co. of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 26th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. Laboratory Co. of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.71%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Laboratory Co. of America

In other news, Director Kerrii B. Anderson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $230.00, for a total value of $230,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,722 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,156,060. This trade represents a 6.79 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Adam H. Schechter sold 6,189 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 87,441 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,289,260.27. The trade was a 6.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on LH. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $234.00 to $249.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Laboratory Co. of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $260.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of 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. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $250.00 to $240.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Laboratory Co. of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $255.92.

Laboratory Co. of America Profile

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.