DIAGNOS (OTCMKTS:DGNOF) & Acuity (NYSE:AYI) Financial Survey

DIAGNOS (OTCMKTS:DGNOF) and Acuity (NYSE:AYI) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares DIAGNOS and Acuity”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DIAGNOS	$80,000.00	292.60	-$3.08 million	($0.04)	-4.86
Acuity	$4.35 billion	1.95	$396.60 million	$13.00	21.25

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.2% of Acuity shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of Acuity shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares DIAGNOS and Acuity’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DIAGNOS	-6,869.39%	N/A	-204.02%
Acuity	9.04%	20.97%	11.95%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for DIAGNOS and Acuity, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DIAGNOS	0	0	0	0	0.00
Acuity	0	4	5	0	2.56

Acuity has a consensus target price of $380.17, suggesting a potential upside of 37.64%. Given Acuity’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Acuity is more favorable than DIAGNOS.

Volatility and Risk

DIAGNOS has a beta of -0.03, suggesting that its stock price is 103% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acuity has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its stock price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Acuity beats DIAGNOS on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DIAGNOS

DIAGNOS Inc. provides software-based services primarily in Canada, the United States, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Costa Rica. The company offers healthcare services through Computer Assisted Retina Analysis, a web-based software tool that assists healthcare professionals for the detection of diabetic retinopathy; and allows eye care specialist to visualize both normal retinal landmarks and pathological changes. It also provides various consulting services in the fields of data analysis and artificial intelligence. DIAGNOS Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Brossard, Canada.

About Acuity

Acuity Brands, Inc. provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch. This segment serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, national accounts, original equipment manufacturers, digital retailers, lighting showrooms, and energy service companies. The ISG segment offers building management solutions, such as products for controlling heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, shades, refrigeration, and building access that deliver end-to-end optimization of those building systems; and building management software that enhances building system management and automates labor intensive tasks. This segment serves system integrators, as well as retail stores, airports, and enterprise campuses. The company offers its products and solutions under the Atrius, Distech Controls, and KE2 Therm Solutions brands. Acuity Brands, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.