Head-To-Head Contrast: Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) vs. Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP)

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) and Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) are both large-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.1% of Avantor shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.0% of Medpace shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Avantor shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 20.5% of Medpace shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Avantor and Medpace, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avantor	1	15	2	0	2.06
Medpace	0	10	3	0	2.23

Avantor presently has a consensus price target of $12.47, suggesting a potential downside of 21.15%. Medpace has a consensus price target of $602.27, suggesting a potential downside of 2.94%. Given Medpace’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Medpace is more favorable than Avantor.

Profitability

This table compares Avantor and Medpace’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avantor	-8.81%	9.92%	4.75%
Medpace	17.67%	110.15%	24.84%

Volatility & Risk

Avantor has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medpace has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Avantor and Medpace”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Avantor	$6.56 billion	1.63	-$530.20 million	($0.84)	-18.83
Medpace	$2.78 billion	6.22	$451.12 million	$17.06	36.37

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

Summary

Medpace beats Avantor on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Avantor

Avantor, Inc. engages in the provision of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers materials and consumables, such as purity chemicals and reagents, lab products and supplies, formulated silicone materials, customized excipients, customized single-use assemblies, process chromatography resins and columns, analytical sample prep kits, education and microbiology products, clinical trial kits, peristaltic pumps, and fluid handling tips. It also provides equipment and instrumentation products, including filtration systems, virus inactivation systems, incubators, analytical instruments, evaporators, ultra-low-temperature freezers, biological safety cabinets, and critical environment supplies. In addition, the company offers services and specialty procurements comprising onsite lab and production, clinical, equipment, procurement and sourcing, and biopharmaceutical material scale-up and development services. Further, it provides scientific research support services, such as DNA extraction, bioreactor servicing, clinical and biorepository, and compound management services. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

About Medpace

Medpace Holdings, Inc. engages in the provision of outsourced clinical development services to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Its services include medical department, clinical trial management, data-driven feasibility, study-start-up, clinical monitoring, regulatory affairs, patient recruitment and retention, medical writing, biometrics and data sciences, pharmacovigilance, core laboratory, laboratories, clinics, and quality assurance. The company was founded by August James Troendle in 1992 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH.