5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: LabCorp (LH)

5-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: LabCorp

Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, medical lab operator Laboratory Corp. of America (NYSE: LH ) has earned a coveted five-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at LabCorp's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

LabCorp facts

Headquarters (Founded)	Burlington, N.C. (1971)
Market Cap	$8.52 billion
Industry	Health-care services
Trailing-12-Month Revenue	$5.3 billion
Management	Chairman/CEO David King CFO William Hayes
Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years)	24.5%
Cash/Debt	$118.9 million / $2 billion
Competitors	Bio-Reference Labs (Nasdaq: BRLI ) Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX )

Sources: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 97% of the 656 members who have rated LabCorp believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bulls include 94impala and DrTechnical.

Earlier this year, 94impala touched on the healthy trends working in LabCorp's favor:

Low cost leader. Check the population/age curve and watch what happens with health care reform. Testing demand will go up and LH is my pick

LabCorp even sports a solid three-year average net margin of 10.8%. That's higher than that of rivals Bio-Reference (5.9%) and Quest Diagnostics (8.3%).

CAPS member DrTechnical elaborates on the LabCorp bull case:

The company is concentrating efforts to develop (or acquire) technology for genetic testing, with its associated higher margins than regular routine blood tests. Coupled with its existing DNA testing facility, plus the recently acquired genetics testing arm of Genzyme, LabCorp is well-positioned for the testing needs of the future. In addition, its efforts to automate the testing process (which is currently very labor-intensive) will help keep costs low to remain competitive.

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Interested in another easy way to track LabCorp? Add it to your watchlist.

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Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of LabCorp and Quest. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.

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