Reviewing Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) and Enhabit (NYSE:EHAB)

Enhabit (NYSE:EHAB) and Biodesix (NASDAQ:BDSX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Enhabit	$1.03 billion	0.41	-$156.20 million	($2.67)	-3.11
Biodesix	$71.32 million	0.72	-$42.93 million	($5.80)	-1.21

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Enhabit and Biodesix, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Enhabit	1	2	1	0	2.00
Biodesix	1	1	4	0	2.50

Enhabit currently has a consensus target price of $8.67, suggesting a potential upside of 4.35%. Biodesix has a consensus target price of $32.50, suggesting a potential upside of 362.70%. Given Biodesix’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Biodesix is more favorable than Enhabit.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

21.0% of Biodesix shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Enhabit shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 30.1% of Biodesix shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Enhabit and Biodesix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Enhabit	-12.84%	2.72%	1.25%
Biodesix	-53.66%	-269.67%	-43.94%

Volatility and Risk

Enhabit has a beta of 1.69, indicating that its share price is 69% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Biodesix has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Biodesix beats Enhabit on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Enhabit

Enhabit, Inc. provides home health and hospice services in the United States. Its home health services include patient education, pain management, wound care and dressing changes, cardiac rehabilitation, infusion therapy, pharmaceutical administration, and skilled observation and assessment services; practices to treat chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, arthritis, Alzheimer's disease, low vision, spinal stenosis, Parkinson's disease, osteoporosis, complex wound care and chronic pain, along with disease-specific plans for patients with diabetes, congestive heart failure, post-orthopedic surgery, or injury and respiratory diseases; and physical, occupational and speech therapists provide therapy services. The company offers hospice services, including pain and symptom management, palliative and dietary counseling, social worker visits, spiritual counseling, and bereavement counseling services to meet the individual physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial needs of terminally ill patients and their families. The company was formerly known as Encompass Health Home Health Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Enhabit, Inc. in March 2022. Enhabit, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

About Biodesix

Biodesix, Inc. operates as a data-driven diagnostic solutions company in the United States. The company offers blood-based lung tests, including Nodify XL2 and Nodify CDT tests, together marketed as part of Nodify Lung Nodule Risk Assessment testing strategy, to assess the risk of lung cancer and help in identifying the appropriate treatment pathway and help physicians in reclassifying risk of malignancy in patients with suspicious lung nodules. It also provides GeneStrat ddPCR and NGS, and VeriStrat tests, which are used in the diagnosis of lung cancer to measure the presence of mutations in the tumor and the state of the patient's immune system to establish the patient's prognosis and help guide treatment decisions. In addition, the company, through its partnership with Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., provides Bio-Rad SARS-CoV-2 ddPCR, a COVID-19 Test under Biodesix WorkSafe testing program; and Platelia SARS-CoV-2 Total Ab test, an antibody test for detecting a B-cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2 that indicate recent or prior infection. Further, it offers diagnostic and clinical research, as well as clinical trial testing services to biopharmaceutical companies; and discovers, develops, and commercializes companion diagnostics. The company was formerly known as Elston Technologies, Inc. and as changed to Biodesix, Inc. in 2006. Biodesix, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Louisville, Colorado.