Comparing Decision Diagnostics (OTCMKTS:DECN) & Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT)

Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) and Decision Diagnostics (OTCMKTS:DECN) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, dividends, risk and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Health Catalyst has a beta of 1.72, suggesting that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Decision Diagnostics has a beta of 0.22, suggesting that its stock price is 78% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Health Catalyst and Decision Diagnostics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Health Catalyst	$316.06 million	0.53	-$69.50 million	($1.59)	-1.48
Decision Diagnostics	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Decision Diagnostics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Health Catalyst.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.0% of Health Catalyst shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Health Catalyst shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Health Catalyst and Decision Diagnostics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Health Catalyst	-34.05%	-6.67%	-3.21%
Decision Diagnostics	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Health Catalyst and Decision Diagnostics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Health Catalyst	1	8	5	0	2.29
Decision Diagnostics	0	0	0	0	0.00

Health Catalyst currently has a consensus price target of $4.36, suggesting a potential upside of 85.29%. Given Health Catalyst’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Health Catalyst is more favorable than Decision Diagnostics.

Summary

Health Catalyst beats Decision Diagnostics on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Health Catalyst

Health Catalyst, Inc. provides data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations in the United States. It operates in two segments, Technology and Professional Services. The company provides data operating system data platform which provides clients single comprehensive environment to integrate and organize data from their disparate software systems; and analytics applications, a software analytics applications build for data platform to analyze clients face across clinical and quality, population health, and financial and operational use cases. It offers services expertise solutions comprising data and analytics, domain expertise and education, tech-enabled managed, and implementation services; and opportunity analysis and prioritization, data governance, data modeling and analysis, quality and process improvement strategy, cost accounting, data abstraction, and population health strategies. The company was formerly known as HQC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Health Catalyst, Inc. in March 2017. Health Catalyst, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in South Jordan, Utah.

About Decision Diagnostics

Decision Diagnostics Corp. develops smart phone based electronic medical record (EMR) technologies. The company offers prescription and non-prescription diagnostics; home testing products for the chronically ill; fulfillment services to direct to patient diabetes programs; and cell phone centric e-health products and technologies development services. It manufactures and distributes GenUltimate! glucose test strips, a Class II medical device for at-home use for the measurement of glucose; PetSure! glucose test strip for the glucose testing of dogs and cats designed to work with the Zoetis AlphaTrak and AlphaTrak II glucometers, a legacy meter; GenUltimate! 4Pets Glucose system, a proprietary glucose measuring system, including GenUltimate! 4Pets test strip and Avantage meter, for the testing of dogs, cats, and horses; and GenUltimate! Sure and GenUltimate! Precis test strips. In addition, it engages in the acquisition and holding of intellectual property including patents and trademarks and specialty manufacturing equipment. Further, the company also provides MD@Hand, an inpatient/outpatient management suite; Practice Probe, a data mining utility used to extract information from the physician's practice management system; and ResidenceWare, a residential management system that facilitates the relay of information from commercial and residential real estate management companies to occupying tenants using networking software systems and applications. Its EMR technologies are used by physicians at the point of care. The company was formerly known as InstaCare Corp. and changed its name to Decision Diagnostics Corp. in November 2011. Decision Diagnostics Corp. was founded in 2000 and is based in Westlake Village, California.