Labcorp (NYSE:LH) versus BrightSpring Health Services (NASDAQ:BTSG) Critical Review

Labcorp (NYSE:LH) and BrightSpring Health Services (NASDAQ:BTSG) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.9% of Labcorp shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Labcorp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of BrightSpring Health Services shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Labcorp and BrightSpring Health Services”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Labcorp	$13.01 billion	1.73	$746.00 million	$10.18	26.67
BrightSpring Health Services	$11.27 billion	0.63	-$18.06 million	$0.61	64.38

Labcorp has higher revenue and earnings than BrightSpring Health Services. Labcorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BrightSpring Health Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Labcorp has a beta of 1, suggesting that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, BrightSpring Health Services has a beta of 2.35, suggesting that its stock price is 135% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Labcorp and BrightSpring Health Services, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Labcorp	0	5	10	0	2.67
BrightSpring Health Services	0	2	13	1	2.94

Labcorp currently has a consensus target price of $299.77, indicating a potential upside of 10.42%. BrightSpring Health Services has a consensus target price of $40.92, indicating a potential upside of 4.19%. Given Labcorp’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Labcorp is more favorable than BrightSpring Health Services.

Profitability

This table compares Labcorp and BrightSpring Health Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Labcorp	6.21%	15.85%	7.35%
BrightSpring Health Services	1.04%	11.61%	3.37%

Summary

Labcorp beats BrightSpring Health Services on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Labcorp

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

About BrightSpring Health Services

BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. operates a home and community-based healthcare services platform in the United States. The company's platform focuses on delivering pharmacy and provider services, including clinical and supportive care in home and community settings to Medicare, Medicaid, and insured populations. It serves patients through clinical providers and pharmacists. The company was formerly known as Phoenix Parent Holdings Inc. and changed its name to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. in May 2021. BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. was founded in 1974 and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.