Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) finished Friday with an addition of $3.98 to close at $218.00, an upside of 1.86 percent. An average of 544,660 shares of common stock have been traded in the last five days. There was a gain of $2.77 in the past week, and it reached a new high 6 times over the past 12 months. The last 20 days have seen an average of 668,605 shares traded, while the 50-day average volume stands at 733,005.
LH stock has increased by 2.96% in the last month. The company shares reached their 1-month lowest point of $210.38 on 07/28/23. With the stock rallying to its 52-week high on 07/25/23, shares of the company touched a low of $172.09 and a high of $225.68 in 52 weeks. It has reached a new high 17 times so far this year and achieved 7.76% or $21.77 in price. In spite of this, the price is down -3.40% from the 52-week high.
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Insider Transactions
LH stock investors should be aware that Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) stock had its last reported insider trading activity 4 days ago on Aug 08. In this transaction, the insider spent $1,057,832. EVP, Chief Legal Officer, van der Vaart Sandra D, disposed of 212 shares at a price of $240.00 on Jun 29. The insider now owns more than $50,880 worth of shares. Prior to that, CEO, Covance Drug Development Kirchgraber Paul R went on to Sale 4,300 shares at $216.91 each on May 19. An amount of $932,707 was transacted.
Valuation Metrics
Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) has a trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.56. The stock’s beta is 1.07. Other valuation ratios to consider include the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio at 1.37, the price-to-book (PB) ratio at 1.86, and the price-to-cash flow ratio at 14.37.
Financial Health
The quick ratio of Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings for the three months ended June 29 was 1.50, and the current ratio was 1.60, indicating that the company is able to meet its debt obligations. Further, the company has a long term debt to equity ratio of 0.50 and a total debt to equity ratio of 0.53 for the quarter ending June 29. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings’s EBITDA margin for the year ending June 29 is 19.88%, while its operating margin for the same period stands at 11.90%. Its gross profit as reported stood at $4.39 billion compared to revenue of $14.88 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the three-month period that ended June 29, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings had $5.04 billion in total debt. In the quarter under review, the net income was down than the previous quarter. The company posted a net income of $188.9 million in the quarter, while revenues of $212.9 million were shrunk -89.84%. The analyst consensus anticipated Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings’s latest quarter earnings to come in at $3.53 per share, but it turned out to be $3.42, a -3.10% surprise. For the quarter, EBITDA amounted to $388.2 million. Shareholders own equity worth $88.6 million.
Technical Picture
From a technical analysis perspective, let’s take a brief look at Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) price momentum. RSI 9-day as of the close on 11 August was 62.70%, suggesting the stock is Neutral, with historical volatility in this time frame at 12.72%.
As of today, LH’s price is $215.30 +1.29% or $2.77 from its 5-day moving average. LH is currently trading +2.46% higher than its 20-day SMA and +20.34% higher than its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is +23.09% above the SMA50 and +21.84% above the SMA200.
The stochastic %K and %D were 47.70% and 40.37%, respectively, and the average true range (ATR) was 4.14. With the 14-day stochastic at 63.77% and the average true range at 4.10, the RSI (14) stands at 63.58%. The stock has reached 1.02 on the 9-day MACD Oscillator while the 14-day reading was at 0.32.
Analyst Ratings
Citigroup downgraded Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE: LH) to a a Neutral rating in its most recent analyst report. Previously, the stock was rated as a Buy. The consensus rating for Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) among analysts is Overweight. According to current brokerage recommendations, 0 brokerage firms advise that investors sell LH, while 6 suggest investors hold. There are 0 analysts who rate the stock as underweight. The stock is rated overweight by 1 analysts, while 11 others rate it as a “buy”.
What is LH’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts predict a range of price targets between $215.00 and $270.00, with a median target of $250.50. Taking a look at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts for Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) stock is $247.62.
