Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) vs. Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) Critical Review

Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) and Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.2% of Alignment Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.0% of Biodesix shares are held by institutional investors. 6.6% of Alignment Healthcare shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 30.1% of Biodesix shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Alignment Healthcare and Biodesix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alignment Healthcare	-1.53%	-43.68%	-6.05%
Biodesix	-53.66%	-269.67%	-43.94%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Alignment Healthcare and Biodesix, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alignment Healthcare	0	4	6	1	2.73
Biodesix	0	1	4	0	2.80

Alignment Healthcare presently has a consensus target price of $18.83, suggesting a potential upside of 17.41%. Biodesix has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9,230.85%. Given Biodesix’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Biodesix is more favorable than Alignment Healthcare.

Risk & Volatility

Alignment Healthcare has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Biodesix has a beta of 1, meaning that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Alignment Healthcare and Biodesix”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alignment Healthcare	$2.70 billion	1.17	-$128.04 million	($0.28)	-57.29
Biodesix	$71.32 million	0.77	-$42.93 million	($0.29)	-1.29

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

Summary

Alignment Healthcare beats Biodesix on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alignment Healthcare

Alignment Healthcare, Inc., a tech-enabled Medicare advantage company, operates consumer-centric health care platform for seniors in the United States. It provides customized health care designed to meet the needs of a diverse array of seniors through its Medicare advantage plans. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in Orange, California.

About Biodesix

Biodesix, Inc. operates as a data-driven diagnostic solutions company in the United States. The company offers blood-based lung tests, including Nodify XL2 and Nodify CDT tests, together marketed as part of Nodify Lung Nodule Risk Assessment testing strategy, to assess the risk of lung cancer and help in identifying the appropriate treatment pathway and help physicians in reclassifying risk of malignancy in patients with suspicious lung nodules. It also provides GeneStrat ddPCR and NGS, and VeriStrat tests, which are used in the diagnosis of lung cancer to measure the presence of mutations in the tumor and the state of the patient's immune system to establish the patient's prognosis and help guide treatment decisions. In addition, the company, through its partnership with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., provides Bio-Rad SARS-CoV-2 ddPCR, a COVID-19 Test under Biodesix WorkSafe testing program; and Platelia SARS-CoV-2 Total Ab test, an antibody test for detecting a B-cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2 that indicate recent or prior infection. Further, it offers diagnostic and clinical research, as well as clinical trial testing services to biopharmaceutical companies; and discovers, develops, and commercializes companion diagnostics. The company was formerly known as Elston Technologies, Inc. and as changed to Biodesix, Inc. in 2006. Biodesix, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado.