Ritholtz Wealth Management Acquires Shares of 1,225 Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH)

Ritholtz Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of Laboratory Co. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,225 shares of the medical research company’s stock, valued at approximately $281,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in LH. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,726,627 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $832,827,000 after acquiring an additional 25,469 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 1.5% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,978,686 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $442,197,000 after purchasing an additional 29,046 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Laboratory Co. of America by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,964,743 shares of the medical research company’s stock valued at $437,561,000 after purchasing an additional 13,298 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Laboratory Co. of America by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,930,395 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $431,405,000 after purchasing an additional 167,137 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Laboratory Co. of America by 16.4% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,865,460 shares of the medical research company’s stock worth $416,893,000 after buying an additional 263,105 shares in the last quarter. 95.94% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LH has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on Laboratory Co. of America from $234.00 to $249.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. HSBC raised Laboratory Co. of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Laboratory Co. of America from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $260.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Laboratory Co. of America from $262.00 to $271.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Laboratory Co. of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $260.54.

Laboratory Co. of America Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE LH opened at $242.47 on Thursday. Laboratory Co. of America Holdings has a one year low of $191.97 and a one 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 cap of $20.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.06. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $234.69 and its 200-day moving average is $226.44.

Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) last announced its 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. Laboratory Co. of America had a net margin of 3.43% and a return on equity of 15.27%. The firm had revenue of $3.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.38 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Laboratory Co. of America Holdings will post 14.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Laboratory Co. of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. Laboratory Co. of America’s payout ratio is presently 55.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Kerrii B. Anderson sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $235.00, for a total value of $235,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,722 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,989,670. This trade represents a 7.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Adam H. Schechter sold 6,189 shares of Laboratory Co. of America stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were 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 directly owns 87,441 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,289,260.27. This trade represents a 6.61 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,572 shares of company stock worth $5,915,209. Corporate insiders own 0.85% of the company’s stock.

Laboratory Co. of America Profile

Labcorp Holdings, Inc engages in providing medical testing services. The company was founded on April 16, 2024 and is headquartered in Burlington, NC.