Financial Contrast: CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) versus Agilon Health (NYSE:AGL)

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) and Agilon Health (NYSE:AGL) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares CVS Health and Agilon Health”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CVS Health	$402.07 billion	0.30	$1.77 billion	$2.27	42.32
Agilon Health	$5.93 billion	0.24	-$391.35 million	($21.56)	-4.01

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

Risk & Volatility

CVS Health has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Agilon Health has a beta of 2.29, indicating that its share price is 129% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CVS Health	0.72%	11.88%	3.54%
Agilon Health	-6.09%	-146.03%	-24.55%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

80.7% of CVS Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of CVS Health shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Agilon Health shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for CVS Health and Agilon Health, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CVS Health	0	4	22	0	2.85
Agilon Health	3	7	5	0	2.13

CVS Health currently has a consensus target price of $98.08, suggesting a potential upside of 2.09%. Agilon Health has a consensus target price of $45.05, suggesting a potential downside of 47.88%. Given CVS Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe CVS Health is more favorable than Agilon Health.

Summary

CVS Health beats Agilon Health on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation provides health solutions in the United States. It operates through Health Care Benefits, Health Services, and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segments. The Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services. It serves employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. The Health Services segment offers pharmacy benefit management solutions, including plan design and administration, formulary management, retail pharmacy network management, specialty and mail order pharmacy, clinical, disease management, and medical spend management services. It serves employers, insurance companies, unions, government employee groups, health plans, prescription drug plans, Medicaid managed care plans, CMS, plans offered on public health insurance, and other sponsors of health benefit plans. The Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segment sells prescription and over-the-counter drugs, consumer health and beauty products, and personal care products. This segment also distributes prescription drugs; and provides related pharmacy consulting and other ancillary services to care facilities and other care settings. It operates online retail pharmacy websites, LTC pharmacies and on-site pharmacies, retail specialty pharmacy stores, compounding pharmacies and branches for infusion and enteral nutrition services. The company was formerly known as CVS Caremark Corporation and changed its name to CVS Health Corporation in September 2014. CVS Health Corporation was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

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.