HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA – Get Free Report) and OPKO Health (NASDAQ:OPK – Get Free Report) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.6% of OPKO Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of HCA Healthcare shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 44.7% of OPKO Health shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Volatility and Risk
HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, OPKO Health has a beta of 1.5, indicating that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| HCA Healthcare | 1 | 8 | 14 | 0 | 2.57 |
| OPKO Health | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus target price of $462.64, suggesting a potential upside of 14.25%. OPKO Health has a consensus target price of $1.55, suggesting a potential downside of 5.49%. Given HCA Healthcare’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe HCA Healthcare is more favorable than OPKO Health.
Profitability
This table compares HCA Healthcare and OPKO Health’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| HCA Healthcare | 8.77% | -244.79% | 11.10% |
| OPKO Health | -12.40% | -5.88% | -3.83% |
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares HCA Healthcare and OPKO Health”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| HCA Healthcare | $75.60 billion | 1.16 | $6.78 billion | $29.87 | 13.56 |
| OPKO Health | $606.90 million | 2.02 | -$225.68 million | ($0.09) | -18.22 |
HCA Healthcare has higher revenue and earnings than OPKO Health. OPKO Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HCA Healthcare, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
HCA Healthcare beats OPKO Health on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About HCA Healthcare
HCA Healthcare, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy. The company also operates outpatient health care facilities consisting of freestanding ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices, and various other facilities. In addition, it operates behavioral hospitals, which provide therapeutic programs comprising child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care, adolescent and adult alcohol, drug abuse treatment, and counseling services. The company was formerly known as HCA Holdings, Inc. HCA Healthcare, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
About OPKO Health
OPKO Health, Inc., a healthcare company, engages in the diagnostics and pharmaceuticals businesses in the United States, Ireland, Chile, Spain, Israel, Mexico, and internationally. The company's Diagnostics segment operates BioReference Laboratories that offers laboratory testing services for the detection, diagnosis, evaluation, monitoring, and treatment of diseases, including esoteric testing, molecular diagnostics, anatomical pathology, genetics, women's health, and correctional healthcare to physician offices, clinics, hospitals, employers, and governmental units; and 4Kscore prostate cancer test. Its Pharmaceutical segment offers Rayaldee to treat secondary hyperparathyroidism in adults with stage 3 or 4 chronic kidney disease, and vitamin D insufficiency. This segment also develops multi-specific immune therapies focused on oncology, infectious diseases, vaccines, and immunology; OPK88004, an orally administered selective androgen receptor modulator; OPK88003, a once-weekly administered peptide for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and related obesity; Somatrogon (hGH-CTP), a once-weekly human growth hormone injection; and Factor VIIa-CTP, a novel long-acting coagulation factor being developed to treat hemophilia. In addition, it develops and commercializes longer-acting proprietary versions of already approved therapeutic proteins; develops and produces specialty APIs; develops, manufactures, markets, and sells pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, veterinary, and ophthalmic products; commercializes food supplements and over the counter products; manufactures and sells products primarily in the generics market; and markets, distributes, and sells pharmaceutical products in a range of indications, including cardiovascular products, vaccines, antibiotics, gastro-intestinal products, hormones, and others. The company also operates pharmaceutical platforms in Ireland, Chile, Spain, and Mexico. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.
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