Critical Comparison: TruBridge (NASDAQ:TBRG) & Inspire Medical Systems (NYSE:INSP)

TruBridge (NASDAQ:TBRG) and Inspire Medical Systems (NYSE:INSP) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares TruBridge and Inspire Medical Systems”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TruBridge	$339.17 million	0.96	-$19.67 million	($1.35)	-16.05
Inspire Medical Systems	$802.80 million	4.68	$53.51 million	$2.17	58.71

Inspire Medical Systems has higher revenue and earnings than TruBridge. TruBridge is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Inspire Medical Systems, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

88.6% of TruBridge shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.9% of Inspire Medical Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 10.7% of TruBridge shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Inspire Medical Systems shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares TruBridge and Inspire Medical Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TruBridge	-5.86%	0.33%	0.14%
Inspire Medical Systems	7.92%	10.00%	8.68%

Risk and Volatility

TruBridge has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Inspire Medical Systems has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for TruBridge and Inspire Medical Systems, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TruBridge	0	2	2	0	2.50
Inspire Medical Systems	0	3	8	0	2.73

TruBridge currently has a consensus price target of $21.25, indicating a potential downside of 1.94%. Inspire Medical Systems has a consensus price target of $210.27, indicating a potential upside of 65.04%. Given Inspire Medical Systems’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Inspire Medical Systems is more favorable than TruBridge.

Summary

Inspire Medical Systems beats TruBridge on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TruBridge

TruBridge, Inc. provides healthcare solutions and services for community hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare systems in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), Electronic Health Record (HER), and Patient Engagement. It focuses on providing RCM solutions for care settings, regardless of primary healthcare information solutions provider along with business management, consulting, managed IT services, and analytics and business intelligence. The company provides acute care solutions and related services for community hospitals, and physician clinics; and patient engagement and empowerment technology solutions to improve patient outcomes and engagement strategies with care providers. In addition, it offers patient liability estimates eligibility verification, claim scrubbing and submission, remittance management, denial/audit management, and contract management; and offers RCM services, such as accounts receivable management, private pay service, medical coding, revenue cycle consulting, and other additional insurance and patient billing services. Further, it offers consulting and business management services; managed IT services; encoder solutions; patient management; financial accounting; clinical; patient care; and enterprise applications. Additionally, it offers TruBridge HER platform, including total system support, national client conference, continuing education, software releases, hardware replacement, cloud electronic health record, forms and supplies, and public cloud infrastructure services; post-acute care software systems, and support and maintenance services; and InstantPHR, an interactive portal and CHBase which funnels data from multiple sources into one platform. The company was formerly known as Computer Programs and Systems, Inc. and changed its name to TruBridge, Inc. in March 2024. TruBridge, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Mobile, Alabama.

About Inspire Medical Systems

Inspire Medical Systems, Inc., a medical technology company, focuses on the development and commercialization of minimally invasive solutions for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in the United States and internationally. The company offers Inspire system, a neurostimulation technology that provides a safe and effective treatment for moderate to severe OSA. It also develops a novel, closed-loop solution that continuously monitors a patient's breathing and delivers mild hypoglossal nerve stimulation to maintain an open airway. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota.