Comparing Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS) and Solana (NASDAQ:HSDT)

Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS) and Solana (NASDAQ:HSDT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Avanos Medical and Solana”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Avanos Medical	$701.20 million	1.63	-$72.90 million	($1.58)	-15.59
Solana	$6.02 million	18.78	-$40.89 million	($490.68)	0.00

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

Volatility & Risk

Avanos Medical has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Solana has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.2% of Avanos Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.6% of Solana shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Avanos Medical shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.2% of Solana shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Avanos Medical and Solana, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avanos Medical	1	1	0	0	1.50
Solana	1	0	1	0	2.00

Solana has a consensus price target of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 94.17%. Given Solana’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Solana is more favorable than Avanos Medical.

Profitability

This table compares Avanos Medical and Solana’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avanos Medical	-10.40%	5.47%	4.05%
Solana	-679.54%	-104.96%	-20.67%

About Avanos Medical

Avanos Medical, Inc., a medical technology company, offers medical device solutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It offers a portfolio of chronic care products that include digestive health products, such as Mic-Key enteral feeding tubes, Corpak patient feeding solutions, and NeoMed neonatal and pediatric feeding solutions. The company also provides a portfolio of non-opioid pain solutions, including surgical pain and recovery products, such as ON-Q and ambIT surgical pain pumps, Game Ready cold, and compression therapy systems. In addition, it offers interventional pain solutions, which offers minimally invasive pain-relieving therapies, such as Coolief pain relief therapy; OrthogenRx's knee osteoarthritis hyaluronic acid pain relief injection products; and Trident radiofrequency ablation products to treat chronic pain conditions. It markets its products directly to hospitals and other healthcare providers, healthcare facilities, and other end-user customers, as well as through third-party wholesale distributors. The company was formerly known as Halyard Health, Inc. and changed its name to Avanos Medical, Inc. in June 2018. Avanos Medical, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.

About Solana

Helius Medical Technologies, Inc., a neurotechnology company, focuses on developing, licensing, and acquiring non-implantable technologies for the treatment of symptoms caused by neurological disease or trauma. The company's product is Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator, a non-surgical medical device intended for use as a short term treatment of gait deficit due to symptoms from multiple sclerosis and balance deficit due to mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury, as well as to be used in conjunction with supervised therapeutic exercise. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.