Critical Comparison: IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) & Accuray (NASDAQ:ARAY)

Accuray (NASDAQ:ARAY) and IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Accuray and IQVIA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Accuray	-0.35%	-4.92%	-0.58%
IQVIA	8.07%	30.70%	6.64%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

64.1% of Accuray shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.6% of IQVIA shares are held by institutional investors. 4.4% of Accuray shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of IQVIA shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Accuray has a beta of 1.39, meaning that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IQVIA has a beta of 1.34, meaning that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Accuray and IQVIA”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Accuray	$450.90 million	0.30	-$1.59 million	($0.16)	-7.38
IQVIA	$15.41 billion	2.44	$1.37 billion	$7.29	30.32

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Accuray and IQVIA, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Accuray	1	0	1	0	2.00
IQVIA	0	6	15	2	2.83

Accuray presently has a consensus price target of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 238.98%. IQVIA has a consensus price target of $239.94, indicating a potential upside of 8.55%. Given Accuray’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Accuray is more favorable than IQVIA.

Summary

IQVIA beats Accuray on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Accuray

Accuray Incorporated designs, develops, manufactures, and sells radiosurgery and radiation therapy systems for the treatment of tumors in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa, Japan, and China. It offers the CyberKnife platform, a robotic stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiation therapy system used for the treatment of primary and metastatic tumors outside the brain, including tumors on or near the spine and in the breast, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, and prostate. The company also provides the TomoTherapy platform, including the Radixact System, which allows for integrated radiation treatment planning, delivery, and data management, enabling clinicians to deliver ultra-precise treatments to approximately 50 patients per day; iDMS data management system, a fully integrated treatment planning and data management systems; and Accuray precision treatment planning system, a treatment planning and data management systems. In addition, it offers post-contract customer support, installation, training, and other professional services. The company primarily markets its products directly to customers, including hospitals and stand-alone treatment facilities through its sales organization, as well as to customers through sales agents and group purchasing organizations in the United States; and to customers directly and through distributors and sales agents internationally. Accuray Incorporated was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin.

About IQVIA

IQVIA Holdings Inc. engages in the provision of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and related implementation services; real world solutions that enable life sciences and provider customers to generate and disseminate evidence, which informs health care decision making and improves patients’ outcomes; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services. This segment also provides country level performance metrics related to sales of pharmaceutical products, prescribing trends, medical treatment, and promotional activity across various channels, including retail, hospital, and mail order; and measurement of sales or prescribing activity at the regional, zip code, and individual prescriber level. The Research & Development Solutions segment offers project management and clinical monitoring; clinical trial support; strategic planning and design services; and patient and site centric solutions, as well as central laboratory, genomic, bioanalytical, ADME, discovery, and vaccine and biomarker laboratory services. The Contract Sales & Medical Solutions segment provides health care provider and patient engagement services, and scientific strategy and medical affairs services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device and diagnostic, and consumer health companies. The company has a collaboration with argenx SE. The company was formerly known as Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to IQVIA Holdings Inc. in November 2017. The company is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.