Critical Review: QHSLab (OTCMKTS:USAQ) and Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS)

Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS) and QHSLab (OTCMKTS:USAQ) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Avanos Medical and QHSLab”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Avanos Medical	$687.80 million	0.89	-$392.10 million	($10.19)	-1.29
QHSLab	$2.13 million	4.20	-$260,000.00	($0.04)	-19.81

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Avanos Medical and QHSLab, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avanos Medical	2	0	0	0	1.00
QHSLab	0	0	0	0	0.00

Volatility and Risk

Avanos Medical has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, QHSLab has a beta of 0.43, meaning that its stock price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Avanos Medical and QHSLab’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avanos Medical	-67.00%	6.21%	4.58%
QHSLab	-14.85%	N/A	-22.45%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.2% of Avanos Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.6% of Avanos Medical shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 74.2% of QHSLab shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Avanos Medical beats QHSLab on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Avanos Medical

Avanos Medical, Inc., a medical technology company, offers medical device solutions in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. It offers a portfolio of chronic care products that include digestive health products, such as Mic-Key enteral feeding tubes, Corpak patient feeding solutions, and NeoMed neonatal and pediatric feeding solutions. The company also provides a portfolio of non-opioid pain solutions, including surgical pain and recovery products, such as ON-Q and ambIT surgical pain pumps, Game Ready cold, and compression therapy systems. In addition, it offers interventional pain solutions, which offers minimally invasive pain-relieving therapies, such as Coolief pain relief therapy; OrthogenRx's knee osteoarthritis hyaluronic acid pain relief injection products; and Trident radiofrequency ablation products to treat chronic pain conditions. It markets its products directly to hospitals and other healthcare providers, healthcare facilities, and other end-user customers, as well as through third-party wholesale distributors. The company was formerly known as Halyard Health, Inc. and changed its name to Avanos Medical, Inc. in June 2018. Avanos Medical, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia.

About QHSLab

QHSLab, Inc., a medical device technology and software as a service (SaaS) company, focuses on value-based healthcare, informatics, and algorithmic personalized medicine. It develops digital therapeutics and point of care solutions to support remote patient monitoring, address chronic care, and preventive medicine. The company provides quality health score lab expert system (QHSLab), a cloud-based SaaS system, which provides physicians and healthcare organizations with the ability to capture and store patient information electronically in a secure database; and distributes AllergiEnd, a diagnostic related product and allergen immunotherapy treatments to primary care physicians. Its products are designed to promote prevention, early detection, management, and reversal of chronic diseases. The company was formerly known as USA Equities Corp. and changed its name to QHSLab, Inc. in April 2022. QHSLab, Inc. has a strategic alliance with Medical License Factory, LLC. QHSLab, Inc. was incorporated in 1983 and is based in West Palm Beach, Florida.