Comparing Auna (NYSE:AUNA) & Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Auna (NYSE:AUNA) and Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Auna and Avantor, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Auna	1	2	1	1	2.40
Avantor	3	12	2	0	1.94

Auna currently has a consensus price target of $6.97, suggesting a potential upside of 34.88%. Avantor has a consensus price target of $10.62, suggesting a potential upside of 4.83%. Given Auna’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Auna is more favorable than Avantor.

Profitability

This table compares Auna and Avantor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Auna	1.53%	16.25%	4.03%
Avantor	-8.42%	9.95%	4.78%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.1% of Avantor shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Avantor shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Auna and Avantor”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Auna	$1.23 billion	0.31	$27.39 million	$0.26	19.87
Avantor	$6.55 billion	1.06	-$530.20 million	($0.81)	-12.51

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

Risk & Volatility

Auna has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avantor has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Auna beats Avantor on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Auna

Auna S.A., a healthcare service provider, operates hospitals and clinics in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. The company provides prepaid healthcare plans in Peru; and dental and vision plans in Mexico. The company was founded in 1989 and is based in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

About Avantor

Avantor, Inc. engages in the provision of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers materials and consumables, such as purity chemicals and reagents, lab products and supplies, formulated silicone materials, customized excipients, customized single-use assemblies, process chromatography resins and columns, analytical sample prep kits, education and microbiology products, clinical trial kits, peristaltic pumps, and fluid handling tips. It also provides equipment and instrumentation products, including filtration systems, virus inactivation systems, incubators, analytical instruments, evaporators, ultra-low-temperature freezers, biological safety cabinets, and critical environment supplies. In addition, the company offers services and specialty procurements comprising onsite lab and production, clinical, equipment, procurement and sourcing, and biopharmaceutical material scale-up and development services. Further, it provides scientific research support services, such as DNA extraction, bioreactor servicing, clinical and biorepository, and compound management services. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania.