Evolent Health (NYSE:EVH – Get Free Report) and National Research (NASDAQ:NRC – Get Free Report) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and dividends.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Evolent Health and National Research, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Evolent Health | 1 | 4 | 12 | 0 | 2.65 |
| National Research | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.50 |
Evolent Health presently has a consensus target price of $5.96, indicating a potential upside of 27.85%. National Research has a consensus target price of $26.00, indicating a potential upside of 18.07%. Given Evolent Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Evolent Health is more favorable than National Research.
Valuation and Earnings
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Evolent Health | $1.88 billion | 0.28 | -$534.51 million | ($4.57) | -1.02 |
| National Research | $140.00 million | 3.58 | $11.60 million | $0.25 | 88.08 |
National Research has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Evolent Health. Evolent Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Research, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Evolent Health and National Research’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Evolent Health | -24.08% | -4.27% | -1.06% |
| National Research | 4.18% | 164.26% | 14.67% |
Institutional & Insider Ownership
47.3% of National Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Evolent Health shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.2% of National Research shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Risk & Volatility
Evolent Health has a beta of 0.8, indicating that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Research has a beta of 0.34, indicating that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
National Research beats Evolent Health on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Evolent Health
Evolent Health, Inc., through its subsidiary, Evolent Health LLC, offers specialty care management services in oncology, cardiology, and musculoskeletal markets in the United States. The company provides platform for health plan administration and value-based business infrastructure. It offers administrative services, such as health plan services, pharmacy benefits management, risk management, analytics and reporting, and leadership and management; and Identifi, a proprietary technology system that aggregates and analyzes data, manages care workflows, and engages patients. In addition, the company provides holistic total cost of care management. Evolent Health, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.
About National Research
National Research Corporation provides analytics and insights that facilitate measurement and enhancement of the patient and employee experience. Its portfolio of subscription-based solutions provides actionable information and analysis to healthcare organizations across a range of mission-critical, constituent-related elements, including patient experience, service recovery, care transitions, employee engagement, reputation management, and brand loyalty. The company also offers marketing solutions that allow the tracking of awareness, perception, and consistency of healthcare brands; assessment of competitive differentiators; and enhanced segmentation tools to evaluate needs, wants, and behaviors of communities through real-time competitive assessments and enhanced segmentation tools. In addition, it provides experience solutions, such as patient experience, employee engagement, health risk assessments, care transition, and improvement tools. Further, the company provides reputation solutions that allow healthcare organizations to share a picture of their organization and ensure that timely and relevant content informs consumer decision-making; and governance solutions for not-for-profit hospital and health system boards of directors, executives, and physician leadership. National Research Corporation was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska.
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