Critical Contrast: Danaher (NYSE:DHR) versus Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA)

Danaher (NYSE:DHR) and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE:DNA) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Danaher and Ginkgo Bioworks’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Danaher	15.95%	11.04%	6.81%
Ginkgo Bioworks	-259.96%	-60.27%	-26.88%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

79.0% of Danaher shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.6% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are held by institutional investors. 10.8% of Danaher shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.7% of Ginkgo Bioworks shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Danaher and Ginkgo Bioworks, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Danaher	0	5	19	1	2.84
Ginkgo Bioworks	2	2	0	0	1.50

Danaher presently has a consensus target price of $228.91, suggesting a potential upside of 8.02%. Ginkgo Bioworks has a consensus target price of $7.00, suggesting a potential downside of 9.02%. Given Danaher’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Danaher is more favorable than Ginkgo Bioworks.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Danaher and Ginkgo Bioworks”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Danaher	$24.57 billion	6.06	$3.61 billion	$5.63	37.64
Ginkgo Bioworks	$170.15 million	3.05	-$312.76 million	($5.01)	-1.54

Danaher has higher revenue and earnings than Ginkgo Bioworks. Ginkgo Bioworks is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Danaher, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Danaher has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ginkgo Bioworks has a beta of 1.78, indicating that its stock price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Danaher beats Ginkgo Bioworks on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Danaher

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services that advance, accelerate, and integrate the development and manufacture of therapeutics; cell line and cell culture media development services; cell culture media, process liquids and buffers for manufacturing, chromatography resins, filtration technologies, aseptic fill finish; single-use hardware and consumables and services, such as the design and installation of full manufacturing suites; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes, and services; and healthcare filtration solutions. The Life Sciences segment provides mass spectrometers; flow cytometry, genomics, lab automation, centrifugation, liquid handling automation instruments, antibodies and reagents, and particle counting and characterization; microscopes; protein consumables; industrial filtration products; and genomic medicines, such as custom nucleic acid products, plasmid DNA, RNA, and proteins under the ABCAM, ALDEVRON, BECKMAN COULTER, IDT, LEICA MICROSYSTEMS, MOLECULAR DEVICES, PALL, PHENOMENEX and SCIEX brands. The Diagnostics segment offers chemistry, immunoassay, microbiology, and automation systems; and molecular, acute care, and pathology diagnostics products. This segment also provides clinical instruments, reagents, consumables, software, and services for hospitals, physicians' offices, reference laboratories, and other critical care settings. The company was formerly known as Diversified Mortgage Investors, Inc. and changed its name to Danaher Corporation in 1984. Danaher Corporation was founded in 1969 and is based in Washington, the District of Columbia.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops platform for cell programming in the United States. Its platform is used to program cells to enable biological production of products, such as novel therapeutics, food ingredients, and chemicals derived from petroleum. It serves pharma and biotech, agriculture, industrial and environment, food and nutrition, consumer and technology, and government and defense industries. Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.