After yesterday, who needs a correction? You know it is good for you like a foul tasting medicine...but would rather have something a bit sweeter on the tastebuds....
Didn's see much today earlier....JCOM and MRN, and AHS are showing up. MED almost meets our criteria...but not perfect....but LH looks like a pretty nice fit. I feel like Goldilocks checking the porridge...not too hot...not too cold....JUST RIGHT!
Laboratory Corporation of America is having a nice day today...trading at $30.68 up $.92 or 3.09% on the day.
Per CNN.Money, LH is "an independent clinical laboratory company, offers a broad range of testing services used by the medical profession in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of diseases and other clinical states."
Last quarter was reported on April 28, 2003, and they announced that revenues, per the NYTimes on the Web, were $712.2 million and increase of 20.7% from the same period in 2002. Net income for the quarter increased to $73.9 million or $.51/share compared to $65.8 million or $.46/share in 2002.
Morningstar shows a slow but steady increase in revenue from $1.6 billion in 1998, $1.7 billion in 1999, $1.9 billion in 2000, $2.2 billion in 2001, $2.5 billion in 2002, and extrapolating from the latest quarter, we would get about $2.8 billion in 2003.
Free cash flow has been improving the last few years with a positive $191 million in 2000, $228 million in 2001, and $371 million in 2002.
Assets and liabilities are a fairly well-balanced with $56.4 million in cash and $540 million in other current assets compared to $228.8 million in current liabilities and $771.3 million in long-term liabilities. With the excellent free cash flow, imho, this shouldn't be a problem.
There are 148 million shares outstanding with a $4.6 Billion market cap. The p/e is a reasonable 16.90.
This company looks nice and steady to me. I don't own any shares but would be happy to add some if the opportunity arose. You might want to take a second look at LH.
Please drop me a line at bobsadviceforstocks@lycos.com if you have any questions, comments, or words of encouragement!
Regards to all of my friends and readers.
Bob