Joint (NASDAQ:JYNT) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) Head-To-Head Analysis

Joint (NASDAQ:JYNT) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Joint and UnitedHealth Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Joint	-9.86%	1.60%	0.41%
UnitedHealth Group	5.39%	26.29%	8.67%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

76.9% of Joint shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.9% of UnitedHealth Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 27.9% of Joint shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of UnitedHealth Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Joint and UnitedHealth Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Joint	0	0	2	0	3.00
UnitedHealth Group	1	8	16	0	2.60

Joint currently has a consensus target price of $15.50, indicating a potential upside of 34.55%. UnitedHealth Group has a consensus target price of $427.09, indicating a potential upside of 41.40%. Given UnitedHealth Group’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe UnitedHealth Group is more favorable than Joint.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Joint and UnitedHealth Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Joint	$51.90 million	3.40	-$8.53 million	($0.58)	-19.86
UnitedHealth Group	$400.28 billion	0.68	$14.41 billion	$23.88	12.65

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

Risk and Volatility

Joint has a beta of 1.49, meaning that its stock price is 49% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UnitedHealth Group has a beta of 0.45, meaning that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

UnitedHealth Group beats Joint on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Joint

The Joint Corp. operates and franchises chiropractic clinics in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Corporate Clinics and Franchise Operations. The Joint Corp. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.

About UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group Incorporated operates as a diversified health care company in the United States. The company operates through four segments: UnitedHealthcare, Optum Health, Optum Insight, and Optum Rx. The UnitedHealthcare segment offers consumer-oriented health benefit plans and services for national employers, public sector employers, mid-sized employers, small businesses, and individuals; health care coverage, and health and well-being services to individuals age 50 and older addressing their needs; Medicaid plans, children's health insurance and health care programs; and health and dental benefits, and hospital and clinical services, as well as health care benefits products and services to state programs caring for the economically disadvantaged, medically underserved, and those without the benefit of employer-funded health care coverage. The Optum Health segment provides care delivery, care management, wellness and consumer engagement, and health financial services patients, consumers, care delivery systems, providers, employers, payers, and public-sector entities. The Optum Insight segment offers software and information products, advisory consulting arrangements, and managed services outsourcing contracts to hospital systems, physicians, health plans, governments, life sciences companies, and other organizations. The Optum Rx segment provides pharmacy care services and programs, including retail network contracting, home delivery, specialty and community health pharmacy services, infusion, and purchasing and clinical capabilities, as well as develops programs in the areas of step therapy, formulary management, drug adherence, and disease/drug therapy management. UnitedHealth Group Incorporated was founded in 1974 and is based in Minnetonka, Minnesota.