Head-To-Head Contrast: Teleflex (NYSE:TFX) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO)

Teleflex (NYSE:TFX) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Teleflex and Thermo Fisher Scientific’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Teleflex	-10.28%	15.64%	8.71%
Thermo Fisher Scientific	15.02%	16.97%	8.49%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Teleflex and Thermo Fisher Scientific”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Teleflex	$3.05 billion	1.72	$69.68 million	($7.35)	-16.13
Thermo Fisher Scientific	$42.88 billion	5.02	$6.34 billion	$17.31	33.11

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Teleflex and Thermo Fisher Scientific, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Teleflex	2	9	1	0	1.92
Thermo Fisher Scientific	0	4	19	1	2.88

Teleflex currently has a consensus price target of $134.57, indicating a potential upside of 13.52%. Thermo Fisher Scientific has a consensus price target of $602.35, indicating a potential upside of 5.10%. Given Teleflex’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Teleflex is more favorable than Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.6% of Teleflex shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.2% of Thermo Fisher Scientific shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Teleflex shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Thermo Fisher Scientific shares are owned 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.

Risk & Volatility

Teleflex has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Thermo Fisher Scientific has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Teleflex pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Thermo Fisher Scientific pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Teleflex pays out -18.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Thermo Fisher Scientific pays out 9.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Thermo Fisher Scientific has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Teleflex is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Thermo Fisher Scientific beats Teleflex on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Teleflex

Teleflex Incorporated designs, develops, manufactures, and supplies single-use medical devices for common diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in critical care and surgical applications worldwide. The company provides vascular access products that comprise Arrow branded catheters, catheter navigation and tip positioning systems, and intraosseous access systems for the administration of intravenous therapies, the measurement of blood pressure, and the withdrawal of blood samples through a single puncture site. It also offers interventional products, which consists of various coronary catheters, structural heart support devices, and peripheral intervention and mechanical circulatory support platform that are used by interventional cardiologists and radiologists, and vascular surgeons; and Arrow branded pumps and catheters, Guideline, Turnpike, and Trapliner catheters, the Manta Vascular Closure, and Arrow Oncontrol devices. The company provides anesthesia products, such as airway and pain management products to support hospital, emergency medicine, and military channels; and surgical products, including metal and polymer ligation clips, and fascial closure surgical systems that are used in laparoscopic surgical procedures, percutaneous surgical systems, and other surgical instruments. It also offers interventional urology products comprising the UroLift System, an invasive technology for treating lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostatic hyperplasia; respiratory products, including oxygen and aerosol therapies, spirometry, and ventilation management products for use in various care settings; urology products, such as catheters, urine collectors, and catheterization accessories and products for operative endourology; and bladder management services. The company serves hospitals and healthcare providers, medical device manufacturers, and home care markets. Teleflex Incorporated was incorporated in 1943 and is headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. provides life sciences solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics, and laboratory products and biopharma services in the North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company's Life Sciences Solutions segment offers reagents, instruments, and consumables for biological and medical research, discovery, and production of drugs and vaccines, as well as diagnosis of infections and diseases; and solutions include biosciences, genetic sciences, and bio production to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agricultural, clinical, healthcare, academic, and government markets. Its Analytical Instruments segment provides instruments, consumables, software, and services for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic, government, environmental, and other research and industrial markets, as well as clinical laboratories. The company's Specialty Diagnostics segment offers liquid, ready-to-use, and lyophilized immunodiagnostic reagent kits, as well as calibrators, controls, protein detection assays, and instruments; immunodiagnostics develops, manufactures and markets complete bloodtest systems to support the clinical diagnosis and monitoring of allergy, asthma and autoimmune diseases; dehydrated and prepared culture media, collection and transport systems, instrumentation, and consumables; human leukocyte antigen typing and testing for organ transplant market; and healthcare products. Its Laboratory Products and Biopharma Services segment provides laboratory products, research and safety market channel, and pharma services and clinical research. It offers products and services through a direct sales force, customer-service professionals, electronic commerce, and third-party distributors under Thermo Scientific; Applied Biosystems; Invitrogen; Fisher Scientific; Unity Lab Services; and Patheon and PPD. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.