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Should Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX:SHL) Be Your Next Stock Pick?

Building up an investment case requires looking at a stock holistically. Today I’ve chosen to put the spotlight on Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX:SHL) due to its excellent fundamentals in more than one area. SHL is a financially-sound , dividend-paying company with a an impressive history of performance. Below is a brief commentary on these key aspects. If you’re interested in understanding beyond my high-level commentary, take a look at the report on Sonic Healthcare here.

Solid track record established dividend payer

In the previous year, SHL has ramped up its bottom line by 11.2%, with its latest earnings level surpassing its average level over the last five years. Not only did SHL outperformed its past performance, its growth also exceeded the Healthcare industry expansion, which generated a -11.4% earnings growth. This is an optimistic signal for the future. SHL’s strong financial health means that all of its upcoming liability payments are able to be met by its current cash and short-term investment holdings. This implies that SHL manages its cash and cost levels well, which is an important determinant of the company’s health. SHL’s has produced operating cash levels of 0.27x total debt over the past year, which implies that SHL’s management has put its borrowings into good use by generating enough cash to cover a sufficient portion of borrowings.

ASX:SHL Income Statement Export September 25th 18
ASX:SHL Income Statement Export September 25th 18

For those seeking income streams from their portfolio, SHL is a robust dividend payer as well. Over the past decade, the company has consistently increased its dividend payout, reaching a yield of 3.2%.

ASX:SHL Historical Dividend Yield September 25th 18
ASX:SHL Historical Dividend Yield September 25th 18

Next Steps:

For Sonic Healthcare, I’ve compiled three fundamental aspects you should further examine:

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  1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for SHL’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for SHL’s outlook.

  2. Valuation: What is SHL worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether SHL is currently mispriced by the market.

  3. Other Attractive Alternatives : Are there other well-rounded stocks you could be holding instead of SHL? Explore our interactive list of stocks with large potential to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

To help readers see past the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned. For errors that warrant correction please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com.