Comparing Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) & Cytosorbents (NASDAQ:CTSO)

Cytosorbents (NASDAQ:CTSO) and Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Cytosorbents has a beta of 1.39, suggesting that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medtronic has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

32.9% of Cytosorbents shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.1% of Medtronic shares are held by institutional investors. 7.8% of Cytosorbents shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Medtronic shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Cytosorbents and Medtronic, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cytosorbents	1	1	1	0	2.00
Medtronic	0	9	18	0	2.67

Cytosorbents currently has a consensus price target of $5.38, suggesting a potential upside of 1,389.33%. Medtronic has a consensus price target of $98.83, suggesting a potential upside of 15.41%. Given Cytosorbents’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Cytosorbents is more favorable than Medtronic.

Profitability

This table compares Cytosorbents and Medtronic’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cytosorbents	-31.85%	-235.57%	-37.88%
Medtronic	13.20%	14.51%	7.76%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Cytosorbents and Medtronic”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cytosorbents	$37.20 million	0.61	-$8.20 million	($0.19)	-1.90
Medtronic	$36.36 billion	3.01	$4.80 billion	$3.73	22.96

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

Summary

Medtronic beats Cytosorbents on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cytosorbents

Cytosorbents Corporation engages in the research, development, and commercialization of medical devices with its blood purification technology platform incorporating a proprietary adsorbent and porous polymer technology in the United States, Germany, and internationally. Its flagship product is CytoSorb, an extracorporeal cytokine adsorber for adjunctive therapy in the treatment of sepsis, adjunctive therapy in other critical care applications, prevention, and treatment of perioperative complications, and maintaining or enhancing the quality of solid organs harvested from donors for organ transplant; and offers VetResQ, a device for adjunctive therapy in the treatment of sepsis, pancreatitis, and other critical illnesses in animals. The company also develops CytoSorb-XL, a device for adjunctive therapy in the treatment of sepsis and other critical illnesses; HemoDefend blood purification technology platform to reduce contaminants in the blood supply that can cause transfusion reactions or disease when administering blood and blood products to patients, and removal of anti-A and anti-B blood group antibodies from whole blood and plasma; K+ontrol for treatment of severe hyperkalemia in patients with life-threatening conditions; and ContrastSorb for the removal of IV contrast in blood administered during CT imaging, an angiogram, or during a vascular interventional radiology procedure to reduce the risk of contrast-induced nephropathy. In addition, it develops BetaSorb, a device for the prevention and treatment of health complications caused by the accumulation of metabolic toxins in patients with chronic renal failure; DrugSorb, a device to remove drugs and chemicals from the blood; and DrugSorb-ATR, an antithrombotic removal system. The company was formerly known as MedaSorb Technologies Corporation and changed its name to Cytosorbents Corporation in May 2010. Cytosorbents Corporation was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.

About Medtronic

Medtronic plc develops, manufactures, and sells device-based medical therapies to healthcare systems, physicians, clinicians, and patients worldwide. Its Cardiovascular Portfolio segment offers implantable cardiac pacemakers, cardioverter defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices; cardiac ablation products; insertable cardiac monitor systems; TYRX products; and remote monitoring and patient-centered software. It also provides aortic valves, surgical valve replacement and repair products, endovascular stent grafts and accessories, and transcatheter pulmonary valves; and percutaneous coronary intervention products, percutaneous angioplasty balloons, and products. The company's Medical Surgical Portfolio segment offers surgical stapling devices, vessel sealing instruments, wound closure, electrosurgery products, surgical artificial intelligence and robotic-assisted surgery products, hernia mechanical devices, mesh implants, gynecology and lung products, and various therapies to treat diseases, as well as products in the fields of minimally invasive gastrointestinal and hepatologic diagnostics and therapies, patient monitoring, airway management and ventilation therapies, and renal disease. Its Neuroscience Portfolio segment offers products for spinal surgeons; neurosurgeons; neurologists; pain management specialists; anesthesiologists; orthopedic surgeons; urologists; urogynecologists; interventional radiologists; ear, nose, and throat specialists; and systems that incorporate energy surgical instruments. It also provides image-guided surgery and intra-operative imaging systems and robotic guidance systems used in robot assisted spine procedures; and therapies for vasculature in and around the brain. The company's Diabetes Operating Unit segment offers insulin pumps and consumables, continuous glucose monitoring systems, smart insulin pen systems, and consumables and supplies. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.