Critical Comparison: Bioventus (NASDAQ:BVS) vs. ReShape Lifesciences (OTCMKTS:RSLSD)

Bioventus (NASDAQ:BVS) and ReShape Lifesciences (OTCMKTS:RSLSD) are both small-cap manufacturing companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

62.9% of Bioventus shares are held by institutional investors. 33.0% of Bioventus shares are held by 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Bioventus and ReShape Lifesciences”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bioventus	$573.28 million	1.00	-$33.54 million	N/A	N/A
ReShape Lifesciences	$610,000.00	0.00	-$81.15 million	N/A	N/A

Bioventus has higher revenue and earnings than ReShape Lifesciences.

Profitability

This table compares Bioventus and ReShape Lifesciences’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bioventus	-0.03%	23.04%	6.04%
ReShape Lifesciences	-668.58%	-163.22%	-52.10%

Risk & Volatility

Bioventus has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ReShape Lifesciences has a beta of 2.03, meaning that its share price is 103% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Bioventus and ReShape Lifesciences, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bioventus	1	0	0	0	1.00
ReShape Lifesciences	0	0	0	0	0.00

Given ReShape Lifesciences’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ReShape Lifesciences is more favorable than Bioventus.

Summary

Bioventus beats ReShape Lifesciences on 8 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bioventus

Bioventus Inc. a medical device company, focuses on developing and commercializing clinically treatments that engage and enhance the body’s natural healing process in the United States and internationally. The company’s portfolio of products includes pain treatments, which comprise non-surgical joint pain injection therapies, as well as peripheral nerve stimulation products. Its surgical solutions include bone graft substitutes to fuse and grow bones, enhance results following spinal and other orthopedic surgeries; and ultrasonic medical devices for the use in precise bone sculpting, remove tumors, and tissue debridement. The company’s restorative therapies comprise an ultrasonic bone healing system for fracture care; skin allografts; and products that are used to support healing of chronic wounds, as well as advanced rehabilitation devices designed to help patients regain leg or hand function. It serves physicians spanning the orthopedic continuum, including sports medicine, total joint reconstruction, hand and upper extremities, foot and ankle, podiatric surgery, trauma, spine, and neurosurgery in the physician’s office or clinic, ambulatory surgical centers, or in the hospital setting. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About ReShape Lifesciences

ReShape Lifesciences Inc., a medical device company, focuses on the design, development, and commercialization of technology to treat obesity, metabolic diseases, and other gastrointestinal disorders. The company's product portfolio includes ReShape vBloc, a therapy that enables patients to feel full and eat less by intermittently blocking hunger signals on the vagus nerve; ReShape Vest system, an investigational, minimally invasive, laparoscopically implanted medical device that wraps around the stomach to enable weight loss in obese and morbidly obese patients without permanently changing patient anatomy; and Lap-Band System, a minimally invasive long-term treatment of severe obesity and more invasive surgical stapling procedures, such as the gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy. The company was formerly known as EnteroMedics Inc. and changed its name to ReShape Lifesciences Inc. in October 2017. ReShape Lifesciences Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in San Clemente, California.