Financial Review: Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC) versus Surgery Partners (NASDAQ:SGRY)

Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC) and Surgery Partners (NASDAQ:SGRY) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Sotera Health has a beta of 1.81, suggesting that its share price is 81% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Surgery Partners has a beta of 1.93, suggesting that its share price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Sotera Health and Surgery Partners, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sotera Health	0	3	4	0	2.57
Surgery Partners	1	2	7	0	2.60

Sotera Health presently has a consensus price target of $17.80, suggesting a potential upside of 0.56%. Surgery Partners has a consensus price target of $27.11, suggesting a potential upside of 70.83%. Given Surgery Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Surgery Partners is more favorable than Sotera Health.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sotera Health and Surgery Partners”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sotera Health	$1.10 billion	4.57	$44.34 million	$0.19	93.16
Surgery Partners	$3.11 billion	0.66	-$168.10 million	($1.36)	-11.67

Sotera Health has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Surgery Partners. Surgery Partners is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sotera Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Sotera Health and Surgery Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sotera Health	4.82%	43.69%	6.54%
Surgery Partners	-5.21%	2.41%	0.96%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.0% of Sotera Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 55.1% of Sotera Health shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Surgery Partners shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Sotera Health beats Surgery Partners on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sotera Health

Sotera Health Company engages in the provision of sterilization, lab testing, and advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Sterigenics, Nordion, and Nelson Labs. It provides mission-critical end-to-end sterilization services, including gamma and electron beam irradiation, and ethylene oxide processing, as well as designs, installs, and maintains gamma irradiation systems. The company also provides microbiological and analytical chemistry testing, as well as technical assistance, regulatory consulting, and advisory services. It serves medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food safety, agricultural products, cancer treatment, and high-performance materials industries, as well as commercial, advanced, and specialty application industries. The company was formerly known as Sotera Health Topco, Inc. and changed its name to Sotera Health Company in October 2020. Sotera Health Company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Broadview Heights, Ohio.

About Surgery Partners

Surgery Partners, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a network of surgical facilities and ancillary services in the United States. The company provides ambulatory surgery centers and surgical hospitals that offer non-emergency surgical procedures in various specialties, including orthopedics and pain management, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, and general surgery. It offers diagnostic imaging, laboratory, obstetrics, oncology, pharmacy, physical therapy, and wound care; and ancillary services, including multi-specialty physician practices, urgent care facilities, and anesthesia services. In addition, it offers single- and multi-specialty facilities. Surgery Partners, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee.