Comparing Ardent Health (NYSE:ARDT) & OPKO Health (NASDAQ:OPK)

Ardent Health (NYSE:ARDT) and OPKO Health (NASDAQ:OPK) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

64.6% of OPKO Health shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Ardent Health shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 44.7% of OPKO Health shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Ardent Health and OPKO Health, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ardent Health	2	6	7	0	2.33
OPKO Health	1	3	1	1	2.33

Ardent Health presently has a consensus price target of $12.79, indicating a potential upside of 19.97%. OPKO Health has a consensus price target of $1.55, indicating a potential upside of 6.16%. Given Ardent Health’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Ardent Health is more favorable than OPKO Health.

Profitability

This table compares Ardent Health and OPKO Health’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ardent Health	1.22%	10.35%	3.36%
OPKO Health	-12.40%	-5.88%	-3.83%

Volatility and Risk

Ardent Health has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, OPKO Health has a beta of 1.51, indicating that its stock price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ardent Health and OPKO Health”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ardent Health	$6.32 billion	0.24	$135.81 million	$0.55	19.39
OPKO Health	$606.90 million	1.80	-$225.68 million	($0.09)	-16.22

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

Summary

Ardent Health beats OPKO Health on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ardent Health

Ardent Health Partners, Inc. owns and operates a network of hospitals and clinics that provides a range of healthcare services in the United States. It operates acute care hospitals, including rehabilitation hospitals and surgical hospitals. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee. Ardent Health Partners, Inc. is a subsidiary of EGI-AM Investments, L.L.C.

About OPKO Health

OPKO Health, Inc., a healthcare company, engages in the diagnostics and pharmaceuticals businesses in the United States, Ireland, Chile, Spain, Israel, Mexico, and internationally. The company's Diagnostics segment operates BioReference Laboratories that offers laboratory testing services for the detection, diagnosis, evaluation, monitoring, and treatment of diseases, including esoteric testing, molecular diagnostics, anatomical pathology, genetics, women's health, and correctional healthcare to physician offices, clinics, hospitals, employers, and governmental units; and 4Kscore prostate cancer test. Its Pharmaceutical segment offers Rayaldee to treat secondary hyperparathyroidism in adults with stage 3 or 4 chronic kidney disease, and vitamin D insufficiency. This segment also develops multi-specific immune therapies focused on oncology, infectious diseases, vaccines, and immunology; OPK88004, an orally administered selective androgen receptor modulator; OPK88003, a once-weekly administered peptide for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and related obesity; Somatrogon (hGH-CTP), a once-weekly human growth hormone injection; and Factor VIIa-CTP, a novel long-acting coagulation factor being developed to treat hemophilia. In addition, it develops and commercializes longer-acting proprietary versions of already approved therapeutic proteins; develops and produces specialty APIs; develops, manufactures, markets, and sells pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, veterinary, and ophthalmic products; commercializes food supplements and over the counter products; manufactures and sells products primarily in the generics market; and markets, distributes, and sells pharmaceutical products in a range of indications, including cardiovascular products, vaccines, antibiotics, gastro-intestinal products, hormones, and others. The company also operates pharmaceutical platforms in Ireland, Chile, Spain, and Mexico. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.