Life Healthcare Group (LHC.JO)

Healthcare · JSE · South Africa

R10.84+3.14% today

Fundamentals

Market capR15.50B

P/E ratio11.4

Dividend yield5.47%

Revenue growth (YoY)+2.3%

Profit margin26.7%

Return on equity14.3%

52-week rangeR10.00 to R14.32

Next earnings2026-05-28

Valuation and ratings

DCF fair valueR11.35

Upside to fair value+4.7%

Analyst target (mean)R12.43

Analyst rangeR11.60 to R13.25

Analysts covering5

Consensus viewnone

Moat score56/100

Overall rating60/100, Buy

Life Healthcare Group trades at R10.84, close to the R11.35 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On this measure the market and the model broadly agree, so the interesting question is which of them is wrong.

Our moat model scores it 56 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.

It changes hands at 11.4 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.

About Life Healthcare Group

Life Healthcare Group Holdings Limited, an investment holding company, operates as a private healthcare company in Southern Africa. It operates through Southern Africa Hospitals Services, Southern Africa - Complementary Services, Southern Africa - Healthcare Services, and International segments. The company operates acute hospitals; and Life Nkanyisa care centres that provide long-term chronic mental healthcare, frail care rehabilitation, step-down care, correctional services, primary healthcare, and substance abuse recovery programme services to patients in the public sector. It also offers mental health, acute rehabilitation, renal dialysis, oncology, and diagnostics services; and training for pharmacists, pharmacists' assistants, and nurses. In addition, the company provides nursing and pharmacy services; and health and well-being, occupational health, emergency medical, and complementary and advisory services. Further, it retains the right to manufacture, commercialise, and distribute Life Molecular Imaging (LMI) products, such as early-stage novel radiotherapeutic and radio diagnostic products in Africa. The company was formerly known as Afrox Healthcare Limited and changed its name to Life Healthcare Group Holdings Limited in January 2005. Life Healthcare Group Holdings Limited was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Industry: Medical Care FacilitiesHQ: South Africa

LHC.JO passes 6 of our 30 screens today

Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.

Deep value, with a pulse

A very low earnings multiple is usually a warning. This screen demands a low multiple AND evidence the business still works.

Dividend powerhouses

Yields above 3%, filtered for the one thing yield screens never check: whether the company can actually afford it.

High margin machines

Companies that keep an unusually large share of every pound they sell. That is pricing power made visible.

Low volatility defensives

Companies that move less than the market and pay you to wait. The holdings that let you sleep, and let you hold everything else.

Healthcare and pharma

Drug companies are engines that convert one expiring monopoly into the next. The patent cliff is the whole investment case.

South Africa and the JSE

A commodity and currency market wearing an equity market's clothes. The index can rise on a good day in Beijing.

Common questions

Is Life Healthcare Group (LHC.JO) undervalued?

Against our discounted cash flow estimate of R11.35, LHC.JO at R10.84 is 5% below fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.

What is LHC.JO's P/E ratio?

LHC.JO trades at 11.4 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.

The full research page for LHC.JO, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.

Open LHC.JO in the app Free guides and screens

Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.