We're Picking Up 100 Shares of This Holding After Bird Flu Announcement
In addition to the bird flu headlines as a catalyst, we like the improving technicals for this lab testing name.
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| Symbol | Transaction Type | # Shares Traded | Recent Price $ | Shares Owned After Trade | % Portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LH | Buy | 100 | $229 | 710 | 3.2% |
After you receive this alert, we will buy 100 shares of Labcorp LH at or near $229. Following the trade, the Portfolio will own 710 LH shares, roughly 3.2% of the Portfolio’s assets.
If you were like us and did some catch-up reading on Tuesday and Wednesday, you may have seen more headlines about the H5N1 bird flu. A week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the first case of severe bird flu in the U.S. in Louisiana, and California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency. Admittedly Newsom did so to help spur the proper response to the outbreak, but more recent headlines point to bird flu on the rise in Washington state with one wildlife sanctuary losing half of its big cats.
While it is unknown how the big cats contracted the bird flu, the sanctuary said it “spreads primarily through respiratory secretions and bird-to-bird contact and can also be contracted by carnivorous mammals that ingest birds or other products.” It’s this indirect exposure that led to a recall at Northwest Natural pet food due to bird flu contamination.
Per the CDC, the current risk of bird flu to the public’s health is low, and it is continuing to monitor its spread in people through its influenza surveillance programs. The agency has logged about 60 total human cases so far — the majority being mild infections in agricultural workers, with no person-to-person transmission.
Working with the CDC, Labcorp recently announced the commercial availability of its new H5 bird flu molecular test in the United States that will help physicians diagnose patients suspected of infection with the H5N1 virus. While the current human health risk from avian flu seems low, should we see reported cases spread it could be a catalyst to drive our LH shares higher. While we see what unfolds, we see the development of this test by Labcorp speaking to the company’s ongoing efforts to expand its array of offerings as it continues to expand its footprint with labs, hospitals and other entities.
LH shares have pulled back more than 6% from their mid-November high, and that along with the improving technical set up in the shares is behind our picking up some more shares for the Portfolio. We’ll have a look at those technical, which include support at the 100-day moving average and the MACD turning up, later on Thursday.
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(Please note that we are looking to execute these trades at or near the share price mentioned above. Once the trade is completed, subscribers can see the trade's executed price here. Be sure to click on Closed Trade Gain/Loss and toggle the chart to sort by Purchase Date.)
At the time of publication, TheStreet Pro Portfolio was long LH.
