Contrasting Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) and Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP)

Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) and Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Health Catalyst and Sound Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Health Catalyst	-35.56%	-11.86%	-6.26%
Sound Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk and Volatility

Health Catalyst has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sound Group has a beta of 1.67, suggesting that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Health Catalyst and Sound Group’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Health Catalyst	$299.48 million	1.38	-$118.15 million	($1.85)	-3.79
Sound Group	$2.24 billion	0.00	$12.54 million	$0.99	1.92

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.0% of Health Catalyst shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.6% of Sound Group shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of Health Catalyst shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.2% of Sound Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Health Catalyst and Sound Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Health Catalyst	0	4	8	0	2.67
Sound Group	0	0	0	0	N/A

Health Catalyst presently has a consensus price target of $11.25, indicating a potential upside of 60.49%. Given Health Catalyst’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Health Catalyst is more favorable than Sound Group.

Summary

Sound Group beats Health Catalyst on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Health Catalyst

Health Catalyst, Inc. provides data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations in the United States. It operates in two segments, Technology and Professional Services. The company provides data operating system data platform which provides clients single comprehensive environment to integrate and organize data from their disparate software systems; and analytics applications, a software analytics applications build for data platform to analyze clients face across clinical and quality, population health, and financial and operational use cases. It offers services expertise solutions comprising data and analytics, domain expertise and education, tech-enabled managed, and implementation services; and opportunity analysis and prioritization, data governance, data modeling and analysis, quality and process improvement strategy, cost accounting, data abstraction, and population health strategies. The company was formerly known as HQC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Health Catalyst, Inc. in March 2017. Health Catalyst, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in South Jordan, Utah.

About Sound Group

Sound Group Inc. operates as an audio-centric social and entertainment company. It focuses on building audio platform to connect and communicate. The company, through its product portfolio and in-house technologies, caters to user interest in audio entertainment and social networking. The company was formerly known as LIZHI INC. and changed its name to Sound Group Inc. in January 2024. Sound Group Inc. was founded in 2010 and is based in Singapore.