Contrasting Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) & Talkspace (NASDAQ:TALK)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Talkspace and Azenta, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Talkspace	0	8	1	0	2.11
Azenta	1	3	4	0	2.38

Talkspace currently has a consensus price target of $5.56, indicating a potential upside of 8.22%. Azenta has a consensus price target of $41.33, indicating a potential upside of 104.87%. Given Azenta’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Azenta is more favorable than Talkspace.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

57.4% of Talkspace shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.1% of Azenta shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.5% of Talkspace shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 10.9% of Azenta shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Talkspace	3.40%	6.89%	5.87%
Azenta	-10.34%	1.43%	1.19%

Volatility & Risk

Talkspace has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Azenta has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Talkspace and Azenta”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Talkspace	$228.87 million	3.75	$7.79 million	$0.05	102.80
Azenta	$593.82 million	1.56	-$55.76 million	($1.35)	-14.94

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

Summary

Talkspace beats Azenta on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Talkspace

Talkspace, Inc. operates as a virtual behavioral healthcare company in the United States. The company offers psychotherapy and psychiatry services through its platform to individuals, enterprises, and health plans and employee assistance programs. It provides text, audio, and video-based psychotherapy from licensed therapists. The company offers Talkspace Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Talkspace Behavioral Health plan (BH) that provides online therapy to members through BH and EAP offerings; and Talkspace for Business for members to access its platform services on a benefit plan paid by the enterprise. It serves its platform through third-party platforms or marketplace, such as Apple App Store and Google Play App Store. Talkspace, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

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.