Contrasting Avinger (NASDAQ:AVGR) and Solventum (NYSE:SOLV)

Solventum (NYSE:SOLV) and Avinger (NASDAQ:AVGR) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

18.3% of Avinger shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.4% of Avinger shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Solventum and Avinger, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Solventum	1	8	1	0	2.00
Avinger	0	0	1	0	3.00

Solventum currently has a consensus price target of $64.33, suggesting a potential downside of 12.10%. Avinger has a consensus price target of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 502.41%. Given Avinger’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Avinger is more favorable than Solventum.

Profitability

This table compares Solventum and Avinger’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Solventum	N/A	N/A	N/A
Avinger	-260.86%	N/A	-117.86%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Solventum and Avinger”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Solventum	$8.25 billion	1.53	N/A	N/A	N/A
Avinger	$7.43 million	0.19	-$18.32 million	($18.19)	-0.05

Solventum has higher revenue and earnings than Avinger.

About Solventum

Solventum Corporation, a healthcare company, engages in the developing, manufacturing, and commercializing a portfolio of solutions to address critical customer and patient needs. It operates through four segments: Medsurg, Dental Solutions, Health Information Systems, and Purification and Filtration. The Medsurg segment is a provider of solutions including advanced wound care, I.V. site management, sterilization assurance, temperature management, surgical supplies, stethoscopes, and medical electrodes. The Dental Solutions segment provides a comprehensive suite of dental and orthodontic products including brackets, aligners, restorative cements, and bonding agents. The Health Information Systems provides software solutions including computer-assisted, physician documentation, direct-to-bill and coding automation, classification methodologies, speech, recognition, and data visualization platforms. The Purification and Filtration segment provides purification and filtration technologies including filters, purifiers, cartridges, and membranes. The company was incorporated in 2023 and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

About Avinger

Avinger, Inc., a commercial-stage medical device company, designs, manufactures, and sells a suite of image-guided and catheter-based systems used by physicians to treat patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) primarily in the United States and Germany. The company develops lumivascular platform that integrates optical coherence tomography visualization with interventional catheters to provide real-time intravascular imaging during the treatment portion of PAD procedures. Its lumivascular products comprise Lightbox imaging consoles; the Ocelot and Tigereye family of devices, which are designed to allow physicians to penetrate a total blockage in an artery; and Pantheris, an image-guided atherectomy device that allows physicians to precisely remove arterial plaque in PAD patients. The company is also developing IMAGE-BTK for the treatment of PAD lesions below-the-knee. It markets and sells its products to interventional cardiologists, vascular surgeons, and interventional radiologists. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is based in Redwood City, California.