Critical Analysis: Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS) and Orthofix Medical (NASDAQ:OFIX)

Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS) and Orthofix Medical (NASDAQ:OFIX) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avanos Medical	-10.39%	5.39%	3.97%
Orthofix Medical	-7.41%	-14.05%	-7.17%

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avanos Medical	1	1	0	0	1.50
Orthofix Medical	1	1	3	0	2.40

Orthofix Medical has a consensus target price of $14.75, indicating a potential upside of 62.62%. Given Orthofix Medical’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Orthofix Medical is more favorable than Avanos Medical.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.2% of Avanos Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of Orthofix Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Avanos Medical shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Orthofix Medical shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Avanos Medical and Orthofix Medical”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	$715.90 million	1.64	-$72.90 million	($1.61)	-15.52
Orthofix Medical	$833.19 million	0.44	-$92.19 million	($1.54)	-5.89

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

Risk and Volatility

Avanos Medical has a beta of 1.57, meaning that its stock price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Orthofix Medical has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Orthofix Medical beats Avanos Medical on 8 of the 14 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 Orthofix Medical

Orthofix Medical Inc. operates as a spine and orthopedics company in the United States, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Global Spine and Global Orthopedics. The Global Spine segment manufactures and distributes bone growth stimulator devices for enhance of bone fusion, including adjunctive and noninvasive treatment of cervical and lumbar spine, as well as a therapeutic treatment for non-spine; designs, develops, and markets a portfolio of motion preservation and fixation implant products, which are used in surgical procedures of the spine; and offers biological products, such as fiber-based and particulate demineralized bone matrices, cellular bone allografts, collagen ceramic matrices, and synthetic bone void fillers, and tissue forms, which allow physicians to treat various spinal and orthopedic conditions. This segment also designs, develops, and markets a portfolio of navigation technologies, including tracked surgical tools, intelligent software, and imaging equipment based on machine-vision and optical innovations. The Global Orthopedics segment offers products and solutions that allow physicians to treat various orthopedic conditions related to limb reconstruction and deformity correction unrelated to the spine. This segment designs, develops, and markets external and internal fixation orthopedic products that are coupled with enabling digital technologies to serve the complete patient treatment pathway. It sells its products through distributors and sales representatives to hospitals, healthcare organizations, and healthcare providers. The company was formerly known as Orthofix International N.V. and changed its name to Orthofix Medical Inc. in 2018. Orthofix Medical Inc. was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Lewisville, Texas.