Reviewing Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACB) and Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO)

Bio-Rad Laboratories (NYSE:BIO) and Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ:ACB) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Bio-Rad Laboratories and Aurora Cannabis, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bio-Rad Laboratories	1	2	3	0	2.33
Aurora Cannabis	1	1	1	0	2.00

Bio-Rad Laboratories presently has a consensus price target of $358.50, indicating a potential upside of 31.96%. Given Bio-Rad Laboratories’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Bio-Rad Laboratories is more favorable than Aurora Cannabis.

Volatility and Risk

Bio-Rad Laboratories has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aurora Cannabis has a beta of 0.39, meaning that its share price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Bio-Rad Laboratories and Aurora Cannabis”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bio-Rad Laboratories	$2.58 billion	2.84	$759.90 million	$27.91	9.73
Aurora Cannabis	$246.72 million	0.87	$1.63 million	($1.08)	-3.49

Bio-Rad Laboratories has higher revenue and earnings than Aurora Cannabis. Aurora Cannabis is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bio-Rad Laboratories, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Bio-Rad Laboratories and Aurora Cannabis’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bio-Rad Laboratories	29.42%	3.86%	2.70%
Aurora Cannabis	-23.46%	-0.04%	-0.03%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

65.2% of Bio-Rad Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.6% of Aurora Cannabis shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.1% of Bio-Rad Laboratories shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Aurora Cannabis shares are owned by company 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.

Summary

Bio-Rad Laboratories beats Aurora Cannabis on 14 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Bio-Rad Laboratories

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. manufactures and distributes life science research and clinical diagnostic products in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and Latin America. It operates through two segments, Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics. The company develops, manufactures, and markets instruments, systems, reagents, and consumables to separate, purify, characterize, and quantitate biological materials such as cells, proteins, and nucleic acids for proteomics, genomics, biopharmaceutical production, cellular biology, and food safety markets. It also designs, manufactures, markets, and supports test systems, informatics systems, test kits, and specialized quality controls for hospitals, diagnostic reference, transfusion, and physician office laboratories. The company offers its products through its direct sales force, as well as through distributors, agents, brokers, and resellers. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. was founded in 1952 and is headquartered in Hercules, California.

About Aurora Cannabis

Aurora Cannabis Inc., together with its subsidiaries, produces, distributes, and sells cannabis and cannabis-derivative products in Canada and internationally. It operates through three segments: Canadian Cannabis, European Cannabis, and Plant Propagation. The company produces, distributes, and sells medical and consumer cannabis products in Canada. It is also involved in the distribution of wholesale medical cannabis in the European Union (EU); distribution of wholesale medical cannabis in various international markets, including Australia, the Caribbean, South America, and Israel; supply of propagated vegetables and ornamental plants in North America; and distribution and sale of hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products. In addition, the company cultivates and sells dried cannabis, cannabis oils, capsules, edible cannabis, cannabis extracts, and soft gels, which are ingested in various ways, including smoking, vaporizing, and consumption in the form of oil, capsules, edibles, and extracts; and provides dried flowers, vapes, dried milled strains, strain-specific extracts, strain specific cannabis oils, and concentrates. Further, it offers recreational cannabis products, such as flowers, vapes, ingestibles, concentrates, extracts, and CBD products; and patient counseling and outreach services. The company's adult-use brand portfolio includes Aurora Drift, San Rafael '71, Daily Special, Whistler, Being, and Greybeard, as well as CBD brands, Reliva and KG7; and medical cannabis brands include MedReleaf, CanniMed, Aurora, Whistler Medical Marijuana Co, Pedanios, Bidiol, and CraftPlant. Aurora Cannabis Inc. is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada.