Comparing STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) & Rockwell Medical (NASDAQ:RMTI)

Rockwell Medical (NASDAQ:RMTI) and STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ:STAA) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Rockwell Medical and STAAR Surgical, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rockwell Medical	1	0	1	0	2.00
STAAR Surgical	3	8	2	0	1.92

Rockwell Medical presently has a consensus price target of $20.00, indicating a potential upside of 150.03%. STAAR Surgical has a consensus price target of $28.40, indicating a potential upside of 25.94%. Given Rockwell Medical’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Rockwell Medical is more favorable than STAAR Surgical.

Profitability

This table compares Rockwell Medical and STAAR Surgical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rockwell Medical	-7.33%	-14.03%	-8.90%
STAAR Surgical	1.13%	9.05%	6.99%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

23.3% of Rockwell Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.7% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.6% of Rockwell Medical shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 39.9% of STAAR Surgical shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Rockwell Medical and STAAR Surgical”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rockwell Medical	$69.26 million	0.47	-$5.31 million	($1.34)	-5.97
STAAR Surgical	$239.44 million	4.72	-$80.45 million	$0.07	322.16

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

Volatility and Risk

Rockwell Medical has a beta of 1.64, indicating that its share price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, STAAR Surgical has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

STAAR Surgical beats Rockwell Medical on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rockwell Medical

Rockwell Medical, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a healthcare company that engages in the development, manufacture, commercialization, and distribution of various hemodialysis products for dialysis providers worldwide. The company offers Triferic Dialysate and Triferic AVNU which are indicated to maintain hemoglobin in adult undergoing hemodialysis. It also manufactures, sells, delivers, and distributes hemodialysis concentrates, such as CitraPure citric acid concentrate, Dri-Sate dry acid concentrate, RenalPure liquid acid concentrate, dry acid concentrate mixer, and RenalPure and SteriLyte powder bicarbonate concentrate; and ancillary products, including testing supplies, 5% acetic acid cleaning solution, 5% and 2% citric acid descaler, filtration salts, and other items used by hemodialysis providers. The company's hemodialysis concentrate products are used to sustain patient's life by removing toxins and balancing electrolytes in a dialysis patient's bloodstream. The company serves to hemodialysis clinics. Rockwell Medical, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Wixom, Michigan.

About STAAR Surgical

STAAR Surgical Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells implantable lenses for the eye, and companion delivery systems to deliver the lenses into the eye. The company provides implantable Collamer lens product family (ICLs) to treat visual disorders, such as myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and presbyopia. It markets its products to health care providers, including ophthalmic surgeons, vision and surgical centers, hospitals, government facilities, and distributors, as well as products are primarily used by ophthalmologists. The company sells its products directly through its sales representatives in the United States, Japan, Germany, Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Singapore, as well as through own representatives and independent distributors in China, Korea, India, France, Benelux, Italy, and internationally. STAAR Surgical Company was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Lake Forest, California.