Head-To-Head Survey: Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) vs. Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT)

Azenta (NASDAQ:AZTA) and Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Azenta has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Health Catalyst has a beta of 1.63, suggesting that its stock price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.1% of Azenta shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.0% of Health Catalyst shares are held by institutional investors. 10.9% of Azenta shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Health Catalyst shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Azenta and Health Catalyst”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Azenta	$593.82 million	1.36	-$55.76 million	($3.96)	-4.43
Health Catalyst	$311.14 million	0.35	-$177.97 million	($2.54)	-0.58

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

Profitability

This table compares Azenta and Health Catalyst’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Azenta	-30.49%	1.23%	1.02%
Health Catalyst	-87.69%	-3.03%	-1.64%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Azenta and Health Catalyst, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Azenta	1	3	4	0	2.38
Health Catalyst	1	8	4	0	2.23

Azenta presently has a consensus price target of $39.50, suggesting a potential upside of 125.33%. Health Catalyst has a consensus price target of $2.77, suggesting a potential upside of 87.35%. Given Azenta’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Azenta is more favorable than Health Catalyst.

Summary

Azenta beats Health Catalyst on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Azenta

Azenta, Inc. provides biological and chemical compound sample exploration and management solutions for the life sciences market in North America, Africa, China, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates in two reportable segments, Life Sciences Products and Life Sciences Services. The Life Sciences Products segment offers automated cold storage solutions, consumables and instruments, controlled rate thawing devices, and temperature-controlled storage and transportation solutions. This segment also provides sample management solutions, such as consumable vials and tubes, polymerase chain reaction, plates, instruments for supporting workflows, and informatics. The Life Sciences Services segment provides genomic services, that includes gene sequencing and gene synthesis services; and sample repository solutions, such as on-site and off-site sample storage, cold chain logistics, sample transport and collection relocation, bio-processing solutions, disaster recovery and business continuity, and biospecimen procurement services, as well as project management and consulting services for genomic analysis and the management and care of biological samples used in pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, clinical, and academic research, and development sectors. It serves a range of life science customers, including pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, biorepositories, and research institutes. The company was formerly known as Brooks Automation, Inc. and changed its name to Azenta, Inc. in December 2021. Azenta, Inc. was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

About Health Catalyst

Health Catalyst, Inc. provides data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations in the United States. It operates in two segments, Technology and Professional Services. The company provides data operating system data platform which provides clients single comprehensive environment to integrate and organize data from their disparate software systems; and analytics applications, a software analytics applications build for data platform to analyze clients face across clinical and quality, population health, and financial and operational use cases. It offers services expertise solutions comprising data and analytics, domain expertise and education, tech-enabled managed, and implementation services; and opportunity analysis and prioritization, data governance, data modeling and analysis, quality and process improvement strategy, cost accounting, data abstraction, and population health strategies. The company was formerly known as HQC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Health Catalyst, Inc. in March 2017. Health Catalyst, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in South Jordan, Utah.