Critical Contrast: Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) and Clover Health Investments (NASDAQ:CLOV)

Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) and Clover Health Investments (NASDAQ:CLOV) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Biodesix and Clover Health Investments, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Biodesix	1	0	3	1	2.80
Clover Health Investments	1	3	1	0	2.00

Biodesix presently has a consensus target price of $31.33, suggesting a potential upside of 19.68%. Clover Health Investments has a consensus target price of $4.33, suggesting a potential upside of 1.72%. Given Biodesix’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Biodesix is more favorable than Clover Health Investments.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

21.0% of Biodesix shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.8% of Clover Health Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.2% of Biodesix shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.5% of Clover Health Investments shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Biodesix and Clover Health Investments”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Biodesix	$102.94 million	2.68	-$35.26 million	($3.17)	-8.26
Clover Health Investments	$2.48 billion	0.91	-$85.55 million	($0.05)	-85.20

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

Risk & Volatility

Biodesix has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clover Health Investments has a beta of 2.47, indicating that its stock price is 147% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Biodesix and Clover Health Investments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Biodesix	-26.97%	-788.19%	-30.33%
Clover Health Investments	-0.74%	-4.20%	-2.28%

Summary

Biodesix beats Clover Health Investments on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Clover Health Investments

Clover Health Investments, Corp. provides medicare advantage plans in the United States. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Non-Insurance. It also offers Clover Assistant, a cloud-based software platform, that enables physicians to detect, identify, and manage chronic diseases earlier; and access to data-driven and personalized insights for the patients they treat. Clover Health Investments, Corp. is based in Franklin, Tennessee.