Acadia Healthcare (NASDAQ:ACHC – Get Free Report) and GeneDx (NASDAQ:WGS – Get Free Report) are both mid-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Acadia Healthcare and GeneDx, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Acadia Healthcare | 2 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 2.47 |
| GeneDx | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 2.89 |
Acadia Healthcare presently has a consensus target price of $29.85, suggesting a potential upside of 6.10%. GeneDx has a consensus target price of $89.57, suggesting a potential upside of 4.16%. Given Acadia Healthcare’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Acadia Healthcare is more favorable than GeneDx.
Profitability
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Acadia Healthcare | -33.44% | 6.19% | 2.42% |
| GeneDx | -23.41% | 4.12% | 2.26% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
61.7% of GeneDx shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Acadia Healthcare shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.2% of GeneDx shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Acadia Healthcare and GeneDx”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Acadia Healthcare | $3.31 billion | 0.79 | -$1.10 billion | ($12.45) | -2.26 |
| GeneDx | $427.54 million | 6.00 | -$21.02 million | ($3.64) | -23.62 |
GeneDx has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Acadia Healthcare. GeneDx is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acadia Healthcare, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Risk & Volatility
Acadia Healthcare has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GeneDx has a beta of 1.99, indicating that its share price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
GeneDx beats Acadia Healthcare on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Acadia Healthcare
Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. provides behavioral healthcare services in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company develops and operates acute inpatient psychiatric facilities, specialty treatment facilities comprising residential recovery facilities and eating disorder facilities, comprehensive treatment centers, and residential treatment centers, as well as facilities offering outpatient behavioral healthcare services for the behavioral healthcare and recovery needs of communities. Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee.
About GeneDx
GeneDx Holdings Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides genomics-related diagnostic and information services. The company offers Centrellis, an AI-driven health intelligence platform that integrates digital tools and artificial intelligence allowing scientists to ingest and synthesize clinical and genomic data to deliver comprehensive health insights. It provides genetic diagnostic tests, screening solutions, and information with a focus on pediatrics, rare diseases for children and adults, and hereditary cancer screening. GeneDx Holdings Corp. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.
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