Head to Head Review: Align Technology (NASDAQ:ALGN) & Cooper Companies (NASDAQ:COO)

Cooper Companies (NASDAQ:COO) and Align Technology (NASDAQ:ALGN) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

Cooper Companies has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Align Technology has a beta of 1.84, suggesting that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

24.4% of Cooper Companies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.4% of Align Technology shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Cooper Companies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Align Technology shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Cooper Companies and Align Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cooper Companies	2	3	9	1	2.60
Align Technology	2	7	6	1	2.38

Cooper Companies currently has a consensus target price of $84.77, indicating a potential upside of 17.52%. Align Technology has a consensus target price of $175.45, indicating a potential upside of 27.95%. Given Align Technology’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Align Technology is more favorable than Cooper Companies.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cooper Companies and Align Technology”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cooper Companies	$4.05 billion	3.54	$392.30 million	$2.03	35.53
Align Technology	$3.98 billion	2.47	$421.36 million	$5.16	26.58

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

Profitability

This table compares Cooper Companies and Align Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cooper Companies	10.08%	9.82%	6.54%
Align Technology	9.50%	14.06%	8.77%

About Cooper Companies

The Cooper Companies, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and markets contact lens wearers. The company operates in two segments, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. The CooperVision segment provides spherical lense, including lenses that correct near and farsightedness; and toric and multifocal lenses comprising lenses correcting vision challenges, such as astigmatism, presbyopia, and myopia in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. The CooperSurgical segment focuses on family and women's health care, which provides fertility products and services, medical devices, and contraception, as well as cryostorage, such as cord blood and cord tissue storage to health care professionals and patients worldwide. It offers surgical and office products, including endosee endometrial imaging products, fetal pillow cephalic elevation devices for use in cesarean sections, illuminated speculum products, lone star retractor systems, loop electrosurgical excision procedure products, mara water ablation systems, paragard contraceptive IUDs, point-of-care, and uterine positioning products, as well as cryostorage, such as cord blood and cord tissue storage; fertility products and services, such as fertility consumables and equipment, donor gamete services, and genomic services, including genetic testing. The company sells its products to distributors, group purchasing organizations, eye care and health care professionals, including independent practices, corporate retailers, hospitals and clinics, and authorized resellers. The Cooper Companies, Inc. was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in San Ramon, California.

About Align Technology

Align Technology, Inc. designs, manufactures, and markets Invisalign clear aligners, and iTero intraoral scanners and services for orthodontists and general practitioner dentists in the United States, Switzerland, and internationally. The company's Clear Aligner segment offers comprehensive products, including Invisalign comprehensive package that addresses the orthodontic needs of younger patients, such as mandibular advancement, compliance indicators, and compensation for tooth eruption; and Invisalign First Phase I and Invisalign First Comprehensive Phase 2 package for younger patients generally between the ages of six and ten years, which is a mixture of primary/baby and permanent teeth. The segment also provides Invisalign moderate, lite and express packages, and Invisalign go and Invisalign Go Plus; retention products, Invisalign training, and adjusting tools used by dental professionals during the course of treatment; and Invisalign Palatal Expander, a 3D printed orthodontic device; and 3D printing solutions. Its Imaging Systems and CAD/CAM Services segment offers iTero intraoral scanning system, a single hardware platform for restorative or orthodontic procedures; restorative software for general practitioner dentists, prosthodontists, periodontists, and oral surgeons; and orthodontists software for digital records storage, orthodontic diagnosis, and fabrication of printed models and retainers. This segment also provides Invisalign outcome simulator, a chair-side and cloud-based application for the iTero scanner; Invisalign progress assessment tool; Align Oral Health Suite, a digital interface designed to enhance dental consultations; and TimeLapse technology, which allows doctors or practitioners to compare a patient's historic 3D scans to the present-day scan, as well as subscription software, disposables, rentals, leases, pay per scan, and CAD/CAM software solutions. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.