Analyzing Aveanna Healthcare (NASDAQ:AVAH) & CVS Health (NYSE:CVS)

CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) and Aveanna Healthcare (NASDAQ:AVAH) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

CVS Health has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aveanna Healthcare has a beta of 1.95, meaning that its share price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

80.7% of CVS Health shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.0% of Aveanna Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of CVS Health shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of Aveanna Healthcare shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares CVS Health and Aveanna Healthcare’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CVS Health	1.18%	13.12%	3.95%
Aveanna Healthcare	10.56%	80.70%	7.42%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CVS Health and Aveanna Healthcare”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CVS Health	$415.09 billion	0.27	$1.77 billion	$3.78	23.42
Aveanna Healthcare	$2.60 billion	1.10	$225.03 million	$1.23	10.67

CVS Health has higher revenue and earnings than Aveanna Healthcare. Aveanna Healthcare is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CVS Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for CVS Health and Aveanna Healthcare, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CVS Health	0	3	19	0	2.86
Aveanna Healthcare	0	4	6	1	2.73

CVS Health currently has a consensus price target of $109.64, indicating a potential upside of 23.83%. Aveanna Healthcare has a consensus price target of $14.25, indicating a potential upside of 8.61%. Given CVS Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe CVS Health is more favorable than Aveanna Healthcare.

Summary

Aveanna Healthcare beats CVS Health on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CVS Health

CVS Health Corporation provides health solutions in the United States. It operates through Health Care Benefits, Health Services, and Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segments. The Health Care Benefits segment offers traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services. It serves employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. The Health Services segment offers pharmacy benefit management solutions, including plan design and administration, formulary management, retail pharmacy network management, specialty and mail order pharmacy, clinical, disease management, and medical spend management services. It serves employers, insurance companies, unions, government employee groups, health plans, prescription drug plans, Medicaid managed care plans, CMS, plans offered on public health insurance, and other sponsors of health benefit plans. The Pharmacy & Consumer Wellness segment sells prescription and over-the-counter drugs, consumer health and beauty products, and personal care products. This segment also distributes prescription drugs; and provides related pharmacy consulting and other ancillary services to care facilities and other care settings. It operates online retail pharmacy websites, LTC pharmacies and on-site pharmacies, retail specialty pharmacy stores, compounding pharmacies and branches for infusion and enteral nutrition services. The company was formerly known as CVS Caremark Corporation and changed its name to CVS Health Corporation in September 2014. CVS Health Corporation was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

About Aveanna Healthcare

Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc., a diversified home care platform company, provides pediatric and adult healthcare services in the United States. Its patient-centered care delivery platform allows patients to remain in their homes and minimizes the overutilization of high-cost care settings, such as hospitals or skilled nursing facilities. The company operates through three segments: Private Duty Services (PDS), Home Health & Hospice (HHH), and Medical Solutions (MS). The PDS segment offers PDN services, which include in-home skilled nursing services to medically fragile children and adults; nursing services in school settings in which its caregivers accompany patients to school; services to patients in its pediatric day healthcare centers; and employer of record support and personal care services, as well as in-clinic and home-based therapy services, such as physical, occupational, and speech services. The HHH segment provides home health services, including in-home skilled nursing services; physical, occupational, and speech therapy services; and medical social and aide services, as well as hospice services for patients and their families when a life-limiting illness no longer responds to cure-oriented treatments. The MS segment offers enteral nutrition supplies and other products, including formulas, supplies, and pumps to adults and children delivered on a periodic or as-needed basis. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.