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LabCorp (LH) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

LabCorp (LH) closed the most recent trading day at $184.33, moving +0.51% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.16%. At the same time, the Dow lost 1.84%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.13%.

Coming into today, shares of the medical laboratory operator had gained 0.95% in the past month. In that same time, the Medical sector lost 0.29%, while the S&P 500 lost 1.96%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from LH as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, LH is projected to report earnings of $4.76 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 64.14%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.64 billion, up 24.34% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $14.04 per share and revenue of $12.75 billion, which would represent changes of +24.03% and +10.32%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for LH. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 1.41% higher. LH currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, LH currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.06. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 32.86, which means LH is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that LH has a PEG ratio of 1.52. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Medical - Dental Supplies stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.95 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Dental Supplies industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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