Comparing Astrana Health (NASDAQ:ASTH) & AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE:AMN)

Astrana Health (NASDAQ:ASTH) and AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE:AMN) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Astrana Health and AMN Healthcare Services, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Astrana Health	0	2	7	0	2.78
AMN Healthcare Services	2	3	4	0	2.22

Astrana Health presently has a consensus price target of $48.29, indicating a potential upside of 35.03%. AMN Healthcare Services has a consensus price target of $30.86, indicating a potential downside of 14.12%. Given Astrana Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Astrana Health is more favorable than AMN Healthcare Services.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

52.8% of Astrana Health shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.2% of AMN Healthcare Services shares are held by institutional investors. 20.3% of Astrana Health shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of AMN Healthcare Services shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Astrana Health and AMN Healthcare Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Astrana Health	1.05%	10.43%	3.67%
AMN Healthcare Services	3.06%	20.48%	5.99%

Risk & Volatility

Astrana Health has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AMN Healthcare Services has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Astrana Health and AMN Healthcare Services”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Astrana Health	$3.18 billion	0.63	$22.49 million	$0.82	43.61
AMN Healthcare Services	$2.73 billion	0.51	-$95.70 million	($0.87)	-41.30

Astrana Health has higher revenue and earnings than AMN Healthcare Services. AMN Healthcare Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Astrana Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Astrana Health beats AMN Healthcare Services on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Astrana Health

Astrana Health, Inc., Inc., a physician-centric technology-powered healthcare management company, provides medical care services in the United States. It operates through three segments: Care Partners, Care Delivery, and Care Enablement. The company is leveraging its proprietary population health management and healthcare delivery platform, operates an integrated, value-based healthcare model which empowers the providers in its network to deliver care to its patients. It offers care coordination services to patients, families, primary care physicians, specialists, acute care hospitals, alternative sites of inpatient care, physician groups, and health plans. The company's physician network consists of primary care physicians, specialist physicians and extenders, and hospitalists. It serves patients, primarily covered by private or public insurance, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and health maintenance organization plans; and non-insured patients. The company was formerly known as Apollo Medical Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Astrana Health, Inc. in February 2024. Astrana Health, Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Alhambra, California.

About AMN Healthcare Services

AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. provides healthcare workforce solutions and staffing services to healthcare facilities in the United States. It operates through three segments: Nurse and Allied Solutions, Physician and Leadership Solutions, and Technology and Workforce Solutions. The Nurse and Allied Solutions segment offers travel nurse staffing, labor disruption staffing, local staffing, international nurse and allied permanent placement, and allied staffing solutions. The Physician and Leadership Solutions segment provides locum tenens staffing, healthcare interim leadership staffing, executive search, and physician permanent placement solutions. The Technology and Workforce Solutions segment offers language services, vendor management systems, workforce optimization, and outsourced solutions. The company also provides allied health professionals, such as physical therapists, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, medical and radiology technologists, lab technicians, speech pathologists, rehabilitation assistants, and pharmacists. It offers its services under the brands, including AMN Healthcare, Nursefinders, HealthSource Global Staffing, O'Grady Peyton International, Connetics, Medical Search International, DRW Healthcare Staffing, and B.E. Smith. AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.