Head-To-Head Review: Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) versus MSP Recovery (NASDAQ:MSPR)

MSP Recovery (NASDAQ:MSPR) and Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

MSP Recovery has a beta of -2.58, suggesting that its stock price is 358% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Health Catalyst has a beta of 1.64, suggesting that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MSP Recovery and Health Catalyst”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSP Recovery	$18.25 million	0.04	-$360.50 million	($522.40)	0.00
Health Catalyst	$306.58 million	0.54	-$69.50 million	($1.59)	-1.46

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

Profitability

This table compares MSP Recovery and Health Catalyst’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSP Recovery	-4,375.62%	-326.80%	-61.32%
Health Catalyst	-34.05%	-6.67%	-3.21%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

3.8% of MSP Recovery shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.0% of Health Catalyst shares are held by institutional investors. 50.5% of MSP Recovery shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.6% of Health Catalyst shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for MSP Recovery and Health Catalyst, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSP Recovery	1	0	0	0	1.00
Health Catalyst	1	8	5	0	2.29

Health Catalyst has a consensus price target of $4.36, suggesting a potential upside of 87.68%. Given Health Catalyst’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Health Catalyst is more favorable than MSP Recovery.

Summary

Health Catalyst beats MSP Recovery on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MSP Recovery

MSP Recovery, Inc. engages in the development of healthcare recoveries and data analytics software. It also focuses on the identification and recoveries of improper payments made by Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance spaces using data and analytics. The company was founded by John H. Ruiz, Frank C. Quesada, and Diana Diaz on July 8, 2014 and is headquartered in Miami, FL.

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.