Agilon Health (NYSE:AGL) & iSpecimen (NASDAQ:ISPC) Critical Review

Agilon Health (NYSE:AGL) and iSpecimen (NASDAQ:ISPC) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Agilon Health and iSpecimen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Agilon Health	-6.60%	-120.82%	-24.89%
iSpecimen	-543.37%	-496.31%	-133.56%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Agilon Health and iSpecimen, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Agilon Health	2	10	3	0	2.07
iSpecimen	1	0	0	0	1.00

Agilon Health presently has a consensus target price of $40.23, suggesting a potential upside of 33.96%. Given Agilon Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Agilon Health is more favorable than iSpecimen.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.6% of iSpecimen shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Agilon Health shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.2% of iSpecimen shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Agilon Health and iSpecimen”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Agilon Health	$5.93 billion	0.08	-$391.35 million	($23.75)	-1.26
iSpecimen	$1.93 million	2.10	-$10.49 million	($2.35)	-0.06

iSpecimen has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Agilon Health. Agilon Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than iSpecimen, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Agilon Health has a beta of 0.33, indicating that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, iSpecimen has a beta of 1.98, indicating that its share price is 98% more volatile than the S&P 500.

About Agilon Health

agilon health, inc. provides healthcare services for seniors through primary care physicians in the communities of the United States. It offers a platform that manages the total healthcare needs of the patients by subscription-like per-member per-month. The company was formerly known as Agilon Health Topco, Inc. and changed its name to agilon health, inc. in March 2021. agilon health, inc. was founded in 2016 and is based in Austin, Texas.

About iSpecimen

iSpecimen Inc. provides technology that connects life science researchers who need human biofluids, tissues, and living cells for their research with biospecimens available in healthcare provider organizations worldwide. Its cloud-based technology enables scientists to search for specimens and patients across a network of hospitals, clinics, private practice groups, laboratories, blood centers, biobanks, clinical research sites, and cadaveric donation centers. The company develops and operates iSpecimen Marketplace, a proprietary online marketplace platform that connects medical researchers who need access to subjects, samples, and data with hospitals, laboratories, and other organizations who have access to them. It serves biopharmaceutical companies, in vitro diagnostic companies, and government/academic institutions. iSpecimen Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.