Critical Analysis: Aveanna Healthcare (NASDAQ:AVAH) vs. Astrana Health (NASDAQ:ASTH)

Aveanna Healthcare (NASDAQ:AVAH) and Astrana Health (NASDAQ:ASTH) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Aveanna Healthcare and Astrana Health, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aveanna Healthcare	0	6	4	0	2.40
Astrana Health	2	2	6	0	2.40

Aveanna Healthcare presently has a consensus price target of $10.19, indicating a potential upside of 20.70%. Astrana Health has a consensus price target of $45.29, indicating a potential upside of 111.81%. Given Astrana Health’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Astrana Health is more favorable than Aveanna Healthcare.

Risk & Volatility

Aveanna Healthcare has a beta of 2.04, indicating that its share price is 104% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Astrana Health has a beta of 0.79, indicating that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

88.0% of Aveanna Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.8% of Astrana Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.0% of Aveanna Healthcare shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 20.0% of Astrana Health shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aveanna Healthcare	3.29%	-143.55%	4.71%
Astrana Health	1.04%	3.43%	1.87%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Aveanna Healthcare and Astrana Health”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aveanna Healthcare	$2.02 billion	0.87	-$10.93 million	$0.36	23.44
Astrana Health	$2.90 billion	0.42	$43.15 million	$0.19	112.53

Astrana Health has higher revenue and earnings than Aveanna Healthcare. Aveanna Healthcare 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 Aveanna Healthcare on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aveanna Healthcare

Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc., a diversified home care platform company, provides pediatric and adult healthcare services in the United States. Its patient-centered care delivery platform allows patients to remain in their homes and minimizes the overutilization of high-cost care settings, such as hospitals or skilled nursing facilities. The company operates through three segments: Private Duty Services (PDS), Home Health & Hospice (HHH), and Medical Solutions (MS). The PDS segment offers PDN services, which include in-home skilled nursing services to medically fragile children and adults; nursing services in school settings in which its caregivers accompany patients to school; services to patients in its pediatric day healthcare centers; and employer of record support and personal care services, as well as in-clinic and home-based therapy services, such as physical, occupational, and speech services. The HHH segment provides home health services, including in-home skilled nursing services; physical, occupational, and speech therapy services; and medical social and aide services, as well as hospice services for patients and their families when a life-limiting illness no longer responds to cure-oriented treatments. The MS segment offers enteral nutrition supplies and other products, including formulas, supplies, and pumps to adults and children delivered on a periodic or as-needed basis. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

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.