Critical Analysis: Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) & Agilon Health (NYSE:AGL)

Agilon Health (NYSE:AGL) and Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, risk and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

21.0% of Biodesix shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of Agilon Health shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 23.2% of Biodesix shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Agilon Health has a beta of 3.02, meaning that its share price is 202% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Biodesix has a beta of 0.59, meaning that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Agilon Health and Biodesix, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Agilon Health	2	8	5	0	2.20
Biodesix	1	0	2	0	2.33

Agilon Health currently has a consensus target price of $58.73, suggesting a potential downside of 29.45%. Biodesix has a consensus target price of $22.00, suggesting a potential upside of 36.65%. Given Biodesix’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Biodesix is more favorable than Agilon Health.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Agilon Health and Biodesix”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Agilon Health	$5.93 billion	0.23	-$391.35 million	($21.56)	-3.86
Biodesix	$88.50 million	1.88	-$35.26 million	($4.06)	-3.97

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

Profitability

This table compares Agilon Health and Biodesix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Agilon Health	-6.09%	-146.03%	-24.55%
Biodesix	-33.26%	-2,101.40%	-35.65%

About Agilon Health

agilon health, inc. provides healthcare services for seniors through primary care physicians in the communities of the United States. It offers a platform that manages the total healthcare needs of the patients by subscription-like per-member per-month. The company was formerly known as Agilon Health Topco, Inc. and changed its name to agilon health, inc. in March 2021. agilon health, inc. was founded in 2016 and is based in Austin, Texas.

About Biodesix

Biodesix, Inc. operates as a data-driven diagnostic solutions company in the United States. The company offers blood-based lung tests, including Nodify XL2 and Nodify CDT tests, together marketed as part of Nodify Lung Nodule Risk Assessment testing strategy, to assess the risk of lung cancer and help in identifying the appropriate treatment pathway and help physicians in reclassifying risk of malignancy in patients with suspicious lung nodules. It also provides GeneStrat ddPCR and NGS, and VeriStrat tests, which are used in the diagnosis of lung cancer to measure the presence of mutations in the tumor and the state of the patient's immune system to establish the patient's prognosis and help guide treatment decisions. In addition, the company, through its partnership with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., provides Bio-Rad SARS-CoV-2 ddPCR, a COVID-19 Test under Biodesix WorkSafe testing program; and Platelia SARS-CoV-2 Total Ab test, an antibody test for detecting a B-cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2 that indicate recent or prior infection. Further, it offers diagnostic and clinical research, as well as clinical trial testing services to biopharmaceutical companies; and discovers, develops, and commercializes companion diagnostics. The company was formerly known as Elston Technologies, Inc. and as changed to Biodesix, Inc. in 2006. Biodesix, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado.