Critical Survey: LENSAR (NASDAQ:LNSR) & Artivion (NYSE:AORT)

LENSAR (NASDAQ:LNSR) and Artivion (NYSE:AORT) 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, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for LENSAR and Artivion, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LENSAR	1	0	1	0	2.00
Artivion	0	2	6	0	2.75

Artivion has a consensus price target of $50.47, suggesting a potential upside of 41.39%. Given Artivion’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Artivion is more favorable than LENSAR.

Risk and Volatility

LENSAR has a beta of 0.66, meaning that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Artivion has a beta of 1.6, meaning that its share price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares LENSAR and Artivion’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LENSAR	-87.12%	N/A	-73.64%
Artivion	2.21%	7.43%	3.53%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

40.2% of LENSAR shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.4% of Artivion shares are held by institutional investors. 66.0% of LENSAR shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of Artivion shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LENSAR and Artivion”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LENSAR	$53.49 million	1.24	-$31.40 million	($4.39)	-1.27
Artivion	$441.33 million	3.87	$9.77 million	$0.20	178.47

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

Summary

Artivion beats LENSAR on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LENSAR

LENSAR, Inc., a commercial-stage medical device company, focuses on designing, developing, and marketing a femtosecond laser system for the treatment of cataracts and the management of pre-existing or surgically induced corneal astigmatism. It offers LENSAR Laser System that incorporates a range of proprietary technologies designed to assist the surgeon in obtaining visual outcomes, efficiency, and reproducibility by providing imaging, procedure planning, design, and precision. The company also offers ALLY Adaptive Cataract Treatment System, a platform design to femtosecond laser technology features that enhanced laser capabilities into a single small unit that allows surgeons to perform a femtosecond laser assisted cataract procedure in a single operating room. LENSAR, Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.

About Artivion

Artivion, Inc. manufactures, processes, and distributes medical devices and implantable human tissues worldwide. The company provides BioGlue, a polymer consisting of bovine blood protein and an agent for cross-linking proteins for cardiac, vascular, neurologic, and pulmonary procedures; cardiac preservation services; PhotoFix, a bovine pericardial patch; and aortic arch stent grafts including E-vita Open Plus and E-vita Open Neo. It offers E-xtra design engineering systems for the treatment of aortic vascular diseases; E-nside, an off-the-shelf stent graft for the treatment of thoraco-abdominal disease; E-vita THORACIC 3G for the endovascular treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms; E-ventus BX, a balloon-expandable peripheral stent graft for the endovascular treatment of renal and pelvic arteries; E-liac to treat aneurysmal iliac arteries, and aneurysmal iliac side branches; and E-tegra, a stent graft system for the treatment of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms. In addition, the company offers synthetic vascular grafts for use in open aortic and peripheral vascular surgical procedures; PerClot, an absorbable powdered hemostat for use in surgical procedures; cardiac laser therapy products for angina treatment; CryoVein femoral vein and CryoArtery femoral artery vascular preservation services; On-X prosthetic aortic and mitral heart valves and the On-X ascending aortic prosthesis; CarbonAid CO2 diffusion catheters and Chord-X ePTFE sutures for mitral chordal replacement; and ascyrus medical dissection stents, as well as pyrolytic carbon coating services to medical device manufacturers. It serves physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities, as well as cardiac, vascular, thoracic, and general surgeons. The company was formerly known as CryoLife, Inc. and changed its name to Artivion, Inc. in January 2022. Artivion, Inc. was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Kennesaw, Georgia.