Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) vs. Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Head-To-Head Contrast

Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) and Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

78.0% of Medpace shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.0% of Qiagen shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.5% of Medpace shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of Qiagen shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Medpace and Qiagen, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Medpace	0	10	3	0	2.23
Qiagen	0	9	4	1	2.43

Medpace presently has a consensus price target of $584.18, suggesting a potential downside of 1.04%. Qiagen has a consensus price target of $43.93, suggesting a potential upside of 3.65%. Given Qiagen’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Qiagen is more favorable than Medpace.

Profitability

This table compares Medpace and Qiagen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Medpace	17.67%	110.15%	24.84%
Qiagen	19.49%	14.47%	8.34%

Volatility & Risk

Medpace has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Qiagen has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Medpace	$2.53 billion	6.51	$451.12 million	$17.06	34.60
Qiagen	$2.09 billion	4.18	$424.88 million	$1.95	21.73

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

Summary

Medpace beats Qiagen on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Medpace

Medpace Holdings, Inc. engages in the provision of outsourced clinical development services to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Its services include medical department, clinical trial management, data-driven feasibility, study-start-up, clinical monitoring, regulatory affairs, patient recruitment and retention, medical writing, biometrics and data sciences, pharmacovigilance, core laboratory, laboratories, clinics, and quality assurance. The company was founded by August James Troendle in 1992 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials. The firm assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Its bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. The company was founded by Detlev H. Riesner and Metin Colpan on April 29, 1996, and is headquartered in Venlo, the Netherlands.