Analyzing CVRx (NASDAQ:CVRX) and IQVIA (NYSE:IQV)

IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) and CVRx (NASDAQ:CVRX) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, risk, earnings and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.6% of IQVIA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.3% of CVRx shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of IQVIA shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.9% of CVRx 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.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IQVIA	$16.31 billion	2.11	$1.36 billion	$8.07	25.57
CVRx	$56.65 million	2.62	-$53.31 million	($2.02)	-2.77

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

Risk and Volatility

IQVIA has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CVRx has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares IQVIA and CVRx’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IQVIA	8.33%	30.50%	6.53%
CVRx	-89.14%	-120.76%	-48.38%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for IQVIA and CVRx, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IQVIA	0	3	13	1	2.88
CVRx	1	0	1	2	3.00

IQVIA presently has a consensus target price of $222.00, indicating a potential upside of 7.57%. CVRx has a consensus target price of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 105.36%. Given CVRx’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CVRx is more favorable than IQVIA.

Summary

IQVIA beats CVRx on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About IQVIA

IQVIA Holdings Inc. engages in the provision of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and related implementation services; real world solutions that enable life sciences and provider customers to generate and disseminate evidence, which informs health care decision making and improves patients’ outcomes; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services. This segment also provides country level performance metrics related to sales of pharmaceutical products, prescribing trends, medical treatment, and promotional activity across various channels, including retail, hospital, and mail order; and measurement of sales or prescribing activity at the regional, zip code, and individual prescriber level. The Research & Development Solutions segment offers project management and clinical monitoring; clinical trial support; strategic planning and design services; and patient and site centric solutions, as well as central laboratory, genomic, bioanalytical, ADME, discovery, and vaccine and biomarker laboratory services. The Contract Sales & Medical Solutions segment provides health care provider and patient engagement services, and scientific strategy and medical affairs services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device and diagnostic, and consumer health companies. The company has a collaboration with argenx SE. The company was formerly known as Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to IQVIA Holdings Inc. in November 2017. The company is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About CVRx

CVRx, Inc., a commercial-stage medical device company, focuses on developing, manufacturing, and commercializing neuromodulation solutions for patients with cardiovascular diseases. The company offers Barostim, a neuromodulation device indicated to improve symptoms for patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction or systolic heart failure. It sells its products through direct sales force, as well as sales agents and independent distributors in the United States, Germany, and internationally. The company was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.