Reviewing DENTSPLY SIRONA (NASDAQ:XRAY) & STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA)

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

Volatility & Risk

DENTSPLY SIRONA has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, STAAR Surgical has a beta of 0.74, indicating that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for DENTSPLY SIRONA and STAAR Surgical, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DENTSPLY SIRONA	0	11	2	0	2.15
STAAR Surgical	0	10	0	0	2.00

DENTSPLY SIRONA presently has a consensus price target of $18.64, suggesting a potential upside of 37.74%. STAAR Surgical has a consensus price target of $20.67, suggesting a potential downside of 25.39%. Given DENTSPLY SIRONA’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe DENTSPLY SIRONA is more favorable than STAAR Surgical.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares DENTSPLY SIRONA and STAAR Surgical”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DENTSPLY SIRONA	$3.67 billion	0.74	-$910.00 million	($4.74)	-2.85
STAAR Surgical	$313.90 million	4.37	-$20.21 million	($1.93)	-14.35

STAAR Surgical has lower revenue, but higher earnings than DENTSPLY SIRONA. STAAR Surgical is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than DENTSPLY SIRONA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares DENTSPLY SIRONA and STAAR Surgical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DENTSPLY SIRONA	-25.85%	16.33%	5.60%
STAAR Surgical	-42.45%	-16.11%	-12.54%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.7% of DENTSPLY SIRONA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.7% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of DENTSPLY SIRONA shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

DENTSPLY SIRONA beats STAAR Surgical on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DENTSPLY SIRONA

DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. manufactures and sells various dental products and technologies worldwide. It operates in four segments: Connected Technology Solutions, Essential Dental Solutions, Orthodontic and Implant Solutions, and Wellspect Healthcare. The company offers dental equipment comprising imaging equipment, motorized dental handpieces, treatment centers, other instruments, amalgamators, mixing machines, and porcelain furnaces; and dental CAD/CAM technologies to support dental restorations, such as intraoral scanners, 3-D printers, mills, other software and services, and a full-chairside economical restoration of esthetic ceramic dentistry, as well as DS Core, its cloud-based platform. It also provides endodontic products consisting of motorized endodontic handpieces, files, sealers, irrigation needles, and other tools that support root canal procedures; restorative products, including dental ceramics, crowns, and veneers; and preventative products, such as curing light systems, dental diagnostic systems, and ultrasonic scalers and polishers, as well as dental anesthetics, prophylaxis paste, dental sealants, and impression materials. In addition, the company offers SureSmile and Byte aligner solutions; VPro/HyperByte, a high-frequency vibration technology device; SureSmile Simulator, which creates a 3D visualization of a patient's outcome; and Byte Plus for treatment planning. Further, it provides dental implants, digital dentures, crown and bridge porcelain products, bone regenerative and restorative solutions, treatment planning software, and educational programs; dental prosthetics; urology catheters; and other health-related consumables. The company serves professional dental and consumable medical device markets through third-party distributors. The company was formerly known as DENTSPLY International Inc. and changed its name to DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. in February 2016. DENTSPLY SIRONA Inc. was founded in 1877 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina

About STAAR Surgical

STAAR Surgical Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells implantable lenses for the eye, and companion delivery systems to deliver the lenses into the eye. The company provides implantable Collamer lens product family (ICLs) to treat visual disorders, such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. It markets its products to health care providers, including ophthalmic surgeons, vision and surgical centers, hospitals, government facilities, and distributors, as well as products are primarily used by ophthalmologists. The company sells its products directly through its sales representatives in the United States, Japan, Germany, Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, as well as through own representatives and independent distributors in China, Korea, India, France, Benelux, Italy, and internationally. STAAR Surgical Company was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, California.