Head to Head Contrast: Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) & Outset Medical (NASDAQ:OM)

Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) and Outset Medical (NASDAQ:OM) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Health Catalyst and Outset Medical, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Health Catalyst	1	8	5	0	2.29
Outset Medical	1	1	2	1	2.60

Health Catalyst currently has a consensus price target of $4.36, suggesting a potential upside of 85.69%. Outset Medical has a consensus price target of $12.67, suggesting a potential upside of 242.34%. Given Outset Medical’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Outset Medical is more favorable than Health Catalyst.

Risk and Volatility

Health Catalyst has a beta of 1.72, indicating that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Outset Medical has a beta of 2.03, indicating that its stock price is 103% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

85.0% of Health Catalyst shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Health Catalyst shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Outset Medical shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Health Catalyst and Outset Medical”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Health Catalyst	$306.58 million	0.54	-$69.50 million	($1.59)	-1.48
Outset Medical	$113.69 million	0.59	-$127.98 million	($13.05)	-0.28

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

Profitability

This table compares Health Catalyst and Outset Medical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Health Catalyst	-34.05%	-6.67%	-3.21%
Outset Medical	-73.12%	-71.37%	-30.11%

Summary

Health Catalyst beats Outset Medical on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Health Catalyst

Health Catalyst, Inc. provides data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations in the United States. It operates in two segments, Technology and Professional Services. The company provides data operating system data platform which provides clients single comprehensive environment to integrate and organize data from their disparate software systems; and analytics applications, a software analytics applications build for data platform to analyze clients face across clinical and quality, population health, and financial and operational use cases. It offers services expertise solutions comprising data and analytics, domain expertise and education, tech-enabled managed, and implementation services; and opportunity analysis and prioritization, data governance, data modeling and analysis, quality and process improvement strategy, cost accounting, data abstraction, and population health strategies. The company was formerly known as HQC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Health Catalyst, Inc. in March 2017. Health Catalyst, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in South Jordan, Utah.

About Outset Medical

Outset Medical, Inc., a medical technology company, engages in the development of a hemodialysis system for hemodialysis in the United States. The company offers Tablo Hemodialysis System, a compact console with integrated water purification, on-demand dialysate production, and software and connectivity capabilities for dialysis care in acute and home settings; and manufactures, supports, and distributes for Tablo console, Tablo cartridge, and other consumables. It also provides Tablo Data Ecosystem, including TabloHub, a customer-facing portal; MyTablo, a patient-facing portal; and TabloDash, an internal data analytics platform. The company was formerly known as Home Dialysis Plus, Ltd. and changed its name to Outset Medical, Inc. in January 2015. Outset Medical, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.