Comparing SOPHiA GENETICS (NASDAQ:SOPH) and Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA)

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) and SOPHiA GENETICS (NASDAQ:SOPH) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Volatility and Risk

Azenta has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its share price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SOPHiA GENETICS has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

99.1% of Azenta shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 31.6% of SOPHiA GENETICS shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.6% of Azenta shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of SOPHiA GENETICS shares are owned by company 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.

Profitability

This table compares Azenta and SOPHiA GENETICS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Azenta	-10.01%	1.40%	1.17%
SOPHiA GENETICS	-41.13%	-37.75%	-18.75%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Azenta and SOPHiA GENETICS”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Azenta	$593.82 million	2.71	-$59.50 million	($1.30)	-26.96
SOPHiA GENETICS	$65.17 million	5.03	-$62.49 million	($0.46)	-10.54

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Azenta and SOPHiA GENETICS, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Azenta	2	3	3	0	2.13
SOPHiA GENETICS	1	0	2	0	2.33

Azenta presently has a consensus price target of $38.60, suggesting a potential upside of 10.13%. SOPHiA GENETICS has a consensus price target of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 85.57%. Given SOPHiA GENETICS’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SOPHiA GENETICS is more favorable than Azenta.

Summary

Azenta beats SOPHiA GENETICS on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Azenta

Azenta, Inc. provides biological and chemical compound sample exploration and management solutions for the life sciences market in North America, Africa, China, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates in two reportable segments, Life Sciences Products and Life Sciences Services. The Life Sciences Products segment offers automated cold storage solutions, consumables and instruments, controlled rate thawing devices, and temperature-controlled storage and transportation solutions. This segment also provides sample management solutions, such as consumable vials and tubes, polymerase chain reaction, plates, instruments for supporting workflows, and informatics. The Life Sciences Services segment provides genomic services, that includes gene sequencing and gene synthesis services; and sample repository solutions, such as on-site and off-site sample storage, cold chain logistics, sample transport and collection relocation, bio-processing solutions, disaster recovery and business continuity, and biospecimen procurement services, as well as project management and consulting services for genomic analysis and the management and care of biological samples used in pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, clinical, and academic research, and development sectors. It serves a range of life science customers, including pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, biorepositories, and research institutes. The company was formerly known as Brooks Automation, Inc. and changed its name to Azenta, Inc. in December 2021. Azenta, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

About SOPHiA GENETICS

SOPHiA GENETICS SA operates as a cloud-native software technology company in the healthcare space. The company offers SOPHiA DDM platform, a cloud-native software platform for analyzing data and generating insights from multimodal data sets and diagnostic modalities. Its SOPHiA DDM platform and related solutions, applications, products, and services are used by hospitals, laboratories, and biopharmaceutical companies through its own sales force as well as distributors and industry collaborators in Switzerland, France, Italy, rest of Europe, North America, the United States, Latin America, and the Asia-pacific. SOPHiA GENETICS SA was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Rolle, Switzerland.