Financial Comparison: Zynex (NASDAQ:ZYXI) vs. Cytosorbents (NASDAQ:CTSO)

Cytosorbents (NASDAQ:CTSO) and Zynex (NASDAQ:ZYXI) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Cytosorbents and Zynex, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cytosorbents	1	1	1	0	2.00
Zynex	1	0	0	0	1.00

Cytosorbents currently has a consensus price target of $107.50, suggesting a potential upside of 2,554.32%. Given Cytosorbents’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Cytosorbents is more favorable than Zynex.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

32.9% of Cytosorbents shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 29.7% of Zynex shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.8% of Cytosorbents shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 49.3% of Zynex shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cytosorbents and Zynex”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cytosorbents	$37.22 million	0.34	-$8.20 million	($5.80)	-0.70
Zynex	$108.20 million	0.04	$2.99 million	($2.43)	-0.05

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

Profitability

This table compares Cytosorbents and Zynex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cytosorbents	-48.94%	-431.65%	-41.94%
Zynex	-68.35%	-804.30%	-36.67%

Volatility and Risk

Cytosorbents has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zynex has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cytosorbents beats Zynex on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cytosorbents

Cytosorbents Corporation engages in the research, development, and commercialization of medical devices with its blood purification technology platform incorporating a proprietary adsorbent and porous polymer technology in the United States, Germany, and internationally. Its flagship product is CytoSorb, an extracorporeal cytokine adsorber for adjunctive therapy in the treatment of sepsis, adjunctive therapy in other critical care applications, prevention, and treatment of perioperative complications, and maintaining or enhancing the quality of solid organs harvested from donors for organ transplant; and offers VetResQ, a device for adjunctive therapy in the treatment of sepsis, pancreatitis, and other critical illnesses in animals. The company also develops CytoSorb-XL, a device for adjunctive therapy in the treatment of sepsis and other critical illnesses; HemoDefend blood purification technology platform to reduce contaminants in the blood supply that can cause transfusion reactions or disease when administering blood and blood products to patients, and removal of anti-A and anti-B blood group antibodies from whole blood and plasma; K+ontrol for treatment of severe hyperkalemia in patients with life-threatening conditions; and ContrastSorb for the removal of IV contrast in blood administered during CT imaging, an angiogram, or during a vascular interventional radiology procedure to reduce the risk of contrast-induced nephropathy. In addition, it develops BetaSorb, a device for the prevention and treatment of health complications caused by the accumulation of metabolic toxins in patients with chronic renal failure; DrugSorb, a device to remove drugs and chemicals from the blood; and DrugSorb-ATR, an antithrombotic removal system. The company was formerly known as MedaSorb Technologies Corporation and changed its name to Cytosorbents Corporation in May 2010. Cytosorbents Corporation was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.

About Zynex

Zynex, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets medical devices to treat chronic and acute pain; and activate and exercise muscles for rehabilitative purposes with electrical stimulation. The company offers NexWave, a dual channel, multi-modality interferential current, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, and neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) device that is marketed to physicians and therapists by field sales representatives; NeuroMove, an electromyography and electric stimulation technology device; InWave, an electrical stimulation product for the treatment of female urinary incontinence; E-Wave, an NMES device; M-Wave, an NMES device. It also supplies private labeled products, including electrodes for the delivery of electrical current to the body, and batteries for use in electrotherapy products. In addition, the company distributes Comfortrac/Saunders for cervical traction, JetStream for hot/cold therapy, LSO Back Braces for lumbar support, and braces for rehabilitation support. Further, it offers Zynex Fluid Monitoring System (CM-1500); Zynex Wireless Fluid Monitoring System (CM-1600), a noninvasive monitoring device designed to measure relative changes in fluid volume in adult patients; NiCO CO-Oximeter, a laser-based noninvasive co-oximeter; and HemeOx tHb Oximeter, a laser-based total hemoglobin pulse oximeter. The company provides its products for use in pain management and control; stroke and spinal cord injury rehabilitation; hemodynamic monitoring and intravascular volume monitoring; and pulse oximetry monitoring. It sells its products through direct sales force primarily in the United States. Zynex, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.