DGX vs. LH, NTRA, EXAS, RDNT, BGNE, TEVA, BMRN, NBIX, VTRS, and AVTR
Should you be buying Quest Diagnostics stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Quest Diagnostics include Laboratory Co. of America (LH), Natera (NTRA), Exact Sciences (EXAS), RadNet (RDNT), BeiGene (BGNE), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA), BioMarin Pharmaceutical (BMRN), Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX), Viatris (VTRS), and Avantor (AVTR). These companies are all part of the "medical" sector.
Laboratory Co. of America (NYSE:LH) and Quest Diagnostics (NYSE:DGX) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, community ranking, media sentiment, risk, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Quest Diagnostics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Laboratory Co. of America. Quest Diagnostics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Laboratory Co. of America, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
95.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.1% of Quest Diagnostics shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Laboratory Co. of America shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of Quest Diagnostics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Laboratory Co. of America pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Quest Diagnostics pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Laboratory Co. of America pays out 57.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Quest Diagnostics pays out 38.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Quest Diagnostics has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Quest Diagnostics is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Laboratory Co. of America presently has a consensus price target of $243.14, indicating a potential upside of 20.60%. Quest Diagnostics has a consensus price target of $146.17, indicating a potential upside of 7.30%. Given Quest Diagnostics' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Laboratory Co. of America is more favorable than Quest Diagnostics.
In the previous week, Laboratory Co. of America had 8 more articles in the media than Quest Diagnostics. MarketBeat recorded 21 mentions for Laboratory Co. of America and 13 mentions for Quest Diagnostics. Quest Diagnostics' average media sentiment score of 0.64 beat Laboratory Co. of America's score of 0.63 indicating that Laboratory Co. of America is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Quest Diagnostics has a net margin of 9.11% compared to Quest Diagnostics' net margin of 3.52%. Laboratory Co. of America's return on equity of 15.52% beat Quest Diagnostics' return on equity.
Laboratory Co. of America received 79 more outperform votes than Quest Diagnostics when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.10% of users gave Laboratory Co. of America an outperform vote while only 49.48% of users gave Quest Diagnostics an outperform vote.
Laboratory Co. of America has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quest Diagnostics has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Laboratory Co. of America beats Quest Diagnostics on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding DGX and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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