Avinger (NASDAQ:AVGR) & Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) Head to Head Contrast

Avinger (NASDAQ:AVGR) and Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Avinger and Intuitive Surgical, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avinger	0	0	0	0	0.00
Intuitive Surgical	1	4	15	0	2.70

Intuitive Surgical has a consensus price target of $588.95, indicating a potential upside of 10.14%. Given Intuitive Surgical’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Intuitive Surgical is more favorable than Avinger.

Profitability

This table compares Avinger and Intuitive Surgical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avinger	N/A	N/A	N/A
Intuitive Surgical	28.41%	14.43%	12.81%

Risk & Volatility

Avinger has a beta of 1.29, meaning that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Intuitive Surgical has a beta of 1.64, meaning that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

18.3% of Avinger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.6% of Intuitive Surgical shares are held by institutional investors. 42.8% of Avinger shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Intuitive Surgical shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Avinger and Intuitive Surgical”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Avinger	$7.65 million	0.21	-$18.32 million	($11.06)	-0.04
Intuitive Surgical	$8.35 billion	22.95	$2.32 billion	$6.82	78.40

Intuitive Surgical has higher revenue and earnings than Avinger. Avinger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Intuitive Surgical, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Intuitive Surgical beats Avinger on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Avinger

Avinger, Inc., a commercial-stage medical device company, designs, manufactures, and sells a suite of image-guided and catheter-based systems used by physicians to treat patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) primarily in the United States and Germany. The company develops lumivascular platform that integrates optical coherence tomography visualization with interventional catheters to provide real-time intravascular imaging during the treatment portion of PAD procedures. Its lumivascular products comprise Lightbox imaging consoles; the Ocelot and Tigereye family of devices, which are designed to allow physicians to penetrate a total blockage in an artery; and Pantheris, an image-guided atherectomy device that allows physicians to precisely remove arterial plaque in PAD patients. The company is also developing IMAGE-BTK for the treatment of PAD lesions below-the-knee. It markets and sells its products to interventional cardiologists, vascular surgeons, and interventional radiologists. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Redwood City, California.

About Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets products that enable physicians and healthcare providers to enhance the quality of and access to minimally invasive care in the United States and internationally. The company offers the da Vinci Surgical System that enables complex surgery using a minimally invasive approach; and Ion endoluminal system, which extends its commercial offerings beyond surgery into diagnostic procedures enabling minimally invasive biopsies in the lung. It also provides a suite of stapling, energy, and core instrumentation for its multi-port da Vinci surgical systems; progressive learning pathways to support the use of its technology; infrastructure of service and support specialists, a complement of services to its customers, including installation, repair, maintenance, 24/7 technical support, and proactive system health monitoring; and integrated digital capabilities providing connected offerings, streamlining performance for hospitals with program-enhancing insights. The company sells its products through direct sales organizations, such as capital and clinical sales teams. It has a collaboration agreement with FluoGuide A/S for head & neck cancer. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.