Contrasting Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) & LifeMD (NASDAQ:LFMD)

LifeMD (NASDAQ:LFMD) and Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for LifeMD and Avantor, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LifeMD	1	2	6	0	2.56
Avantor	1	11	3	0	2.13

LifeMD presently has a consensus price target of $9.25, suggesting a potential upside of 185.49%. Avantor has a consensus price target of $13.60, suggesting a potential upside of 24.66%. Given LifeMD’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe LifeMD is more favorable than Avantor.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

35.5% of LifeMD shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.1% of Avantor shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.4% of LifeMD shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Avantor shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

LifeMD has a beta of 1.45, indicating that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avantor has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LifeMD and Avantor”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LifeMD	$212.45 million	0.73	-$18.88 million	($0.17)	-19.06
Avantor	$6.58 billion	1.13	$711.50 million	($0.13)	-83.92

Avantor has higher revenue and earnings than LifeMD. Avantor is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LifeMD, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares LifeMD and Avantor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LifeMD	-1.82%	N/A	-6.44%
Avantor	-1.25%	10.91%	5.34%

Summary

Avantor beats LifeMD on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LifeMD

LifeMD, Inc. operates as a direct-to-patient telehealth company that connects consumers to healthcare professionals for medical care in the United States. The company offers telehealth platform comprising RexMD, a men's telehealth brand that provides access to virtual medical treatment for a variety of men's health needs from licensed physician; ShapiroMD that provides virtual medical treatment, prescription medications, patented doctor formulated OTC products, topical compounded medications, and medical devices treating male and female hair loss; NavaMD, a female-oriented tele-dermatology that offers virtual medical treatment from dermatologists and other providers; and prescription oral and compounded topical medications to treat aging and acne; and Cleared which provides personalized treatments for allergy, asthma and immunology, including in-home tests for both environmental and food allergies, prescriptions for allergies and asthma and immunotherapies for treating chronic allergies. It also provides LifeMD PC, a direct-to-consumer virtual primary care which includes 24/7 access to a provider for their primary care, urgent care, and chronic care needs; and offers virtual consultations and treatment, prescription medications, diagnostics and imaging, wellness coaching, and more. In addition, the company offers PDFSimpli, an online software as a service platform that allows users to create, edit, convert, sign, and share PDF documents; ResumeBuild which provides digital resume and cover letter services; SignSimpli, a digital signature platform; and LegalSimpli, a provider of legal forms for consumers and small businesses. It sells its products directly to consumers and through e-commerce platforms, as well as through third party partner channels. The company was formerly known as Conversion Labs, Inc. and changed its name to LifeMD, Inc. in February 2021. LifeMD, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Avantor

Avantor, Inc. engages in the provision of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers materials and consumables, such as purity chemicals and reagents, lab products and supplies, formulated silicone materials, customized excipients, customized single-use assemblies, process chromatography resins and columns, analytical sample prep kits, education and microbiology products, clinical trial kits, peristaltic pumps, and fluid handling tips. It also provides equipment and instrumentation products, including filtration systems, virus inactivation systems, incubators, analytical instruments, evaporators, ultra-low-temperature freezers, biological safety cabinets, and critical environment supplies. In addition, the company offers services and specialty procurements comprising onsite lab and production, clinical, equipment, procurement and sourcing, and biopharmaceutical material scale-up and development services. Further, it provides scientific research support services, such as DNA extraction, bioreactor servicing, clinical and biorepository, and compound management services. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania.