Financial Review: SBC Medical Group (NASDAQ:SBC) and Centene (NYSE:CNC)

Centene (NYSE:CNC) and SBC Medical Group (NASDAQ:SBC) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Centene and SBC Medical Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Centene	2	9	9	1	2.43
SBC Medical Group	0	1	2	0	2.67

Centene presently has a consensus price target of $70.05, indicating a potential upside of 12.64%. SBC Medical Group has a consensus price target of $8.50, indicating a potential upside of 75.62%. Given SBC Medical Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe SBC Medical Group is more favorable than Centene.

Profitability

This table compares Centene and SBC Medical Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Centene	-2.51%	12.12%	3.20%
SBC Medical Group	27.99%	18.47%	13.10%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Centene and SBC Medical Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Centene	$194.78 billion	0.16	-$6.67 billion	($10.44)	-5.96
SBC Medical Group	$173.61 million	2.87	$50.99 million	$0.47	10.30

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

Risk & Volatility

Centene has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SBC Medical Group has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

93.6% of Centene shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.8% of SBC Medical Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Centene shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 81.7% of SBC Medical Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

SBC Medical Group beats Centene on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Centene

Centene Corporation operates as a healthcare enterprise that provides programs and services to under-insured and uninsured families, commercial organizations, and military families in the United States. The company operates through Medicaid, Medicare, Commercial, and Other segments. The Medicaid segment offers health plan coverage, including medicaid expansion, aged, blind, disabled, children’s health insurance program, foster care, medicare-medicaid plans, long-term services and support. This segment also provides healthcare products. The Medicare segment offers special needs and medicare supplement, and prescription drug plans. The Commercial segment provides health insurance marketplace product for individual, small, and large group commercials. It also operates clinical healthcare and pharmacies, as well as offers dental and speech therapy services. In addition, the company engages in the government contracts business under the TRICARE program and other healthcare related government contracts. It provides services through primary and specialty care physicians, hospitals, and ancillary providers. Centene Corporation was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.

About SBC Medical Group

SBC Medical Group Holdings Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides services to support the operation of clinics which deliver specialized medical services in the areas of cosmetic medicine, esthetic dentistry and Androgenetic Alopecia or AGA, primarily in Japan and centered on the SBC Shonan Beauty Clinic Brand. SBC Medical Group Holdings Incorporated, formerly known as Pono Capital Two Inc., is based in TOKYO.