Reviewing Ardent Health (NYSE:ARDT) & Sonic Healthcare (OTCMKTS:SKHHY)

Ardent Health (NYSE:ARDT) and Sonic Healthcare (OTCMKTS:SKHHY) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ardent Health and Sonic Healthcare”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ardent Health	$6.32 billion	0.21	$135.81 million	$0.96	9.79
Sonic Healthcare	$6.25 billion	1.11	$332.61 million	N/A	N/A

Sonic Healthcare has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ardent Health.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.0% of Sonic Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Ardent Health shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Ardent Health and Sonic Healthcare, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ardent Health	2	5	7	0	2.36
Sonic Healthcare	1	0	0	0	1.00

Ardent Health currently has a consensus price target of $14.25, indicating a potential upside of 51.68%. Given Ardent Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Ardent Health is more favorable than Sonic Healthcare.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ardent Health	2.15%	14.30%	4.58%
Sonic Healthcare	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Ardent Health has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sonic Healthcare has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Ardent Health beats Sonic Healthcare on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ardent Health

Ardent Health Partners, Inc. owns and operates a network of hospitals and clinics that provides a range of healthcare services in the United States. It operates acute care hospitals, including rehabilitation hospitals and surgical hospitals. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee. Ardent Health Partners, Inc. is a subsidiary of EGI-AM Investments, L.L.C.

About Sonic Healthcare

Sonic Healthcare Limited offers medical diagnostic services to medical practitioners, hospitals, community health services, and their collective patients. The company provides laboratory medicine/pathology testing services, such as biochemistry, cytopathology, genetics, haematology, histopathology, immunoserology, microbiology, molecular pathology, prenatal testing, toxicology, and ancillary functions; and radiology services, including magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, X-ray, mammography, nuclear medicine, PET CT, interventional procedures, and bone mineral densitometry. It offers primary care medical services comprising general practice clinics, occupational health services, skin cancer clinics, after-hours general practice services, general practice IT solutions, and community-based healthcare services. The company operates in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Belgium, and internationally. Sonic Healthcare Limited was incorporated in 1934 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.