Reviewing Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and Avita Medical (NASDAQ:RCEL)

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and Avita Medical (NASDAQ:RCEL) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Abbott Laboratories and Avita Medical, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Abbott Laboratories	0	5	21	2	2.89
Avita Medical	1	1	5	0	2.57

Abbott Laboratories currently has a consensus target price of $118.32, suggesting a potential upside of 7.42%. Avita Medical has a consensus target price of $15.00, suggesting a potential downside of 12.53%. Given Abbott Laboratories’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Abbott Laboratories is more favorable than Avita Medical.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.2% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.7% of Avita Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Avita Medical shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Abbott Laboratories has a beta of 0.54, indicating that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Avita Medical has a beta of 2.03, indicating that its stock price is 103% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Abbott Laboratories and Avita Medical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Abbott Laboratories	9.75%	18.04%	9.09%
Avita Medical	-42.65%	N/A	-71.34%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Abbott Laboratories and Avita Medical”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Abbott Laboratories	$48.23 billion	3.95	$6.52 billion	$2.68	41.10
Avita Medical	$71.61 million	7.52	-$48.59 million	($1.18)	-14.53

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

Summary

Abbott Laboratories beats Avita Medical on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories, together with its subsidiaries, discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Established Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Medical Devices. The company provides generic pharmaceuticals for the treatment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome or biliary spasm, intrahepatic cholestasis or depressive symptoms, gynecological disorder, hormone replacement therapy, dyslipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, Ménière’s disease and vestibular vertigo, pain, fever, inflammation, and migraine, as well as provides anti-infective clarithromycin, influenza vaccine, and products to regulate physiological rhythm of the colon. It also offers laboratory and transfusion medicine systems in the areas of immunoassay, clinical chemistry, hematology, and transfusion; molecular diagnostics polymerase chain reaction instrument systems that automate the extraction, purification, and preparation of DNA and RNA from patient samples, and detect and measure infectious agents; point of care systems; cartridges for testing blood gas, chemistry, electrolytes, coagulation, and immunoassay; rapid diagnostics lateral flow testing products; molecular point-of-care testing for HIV, SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, RSV, and strep A; cardiometabolic test systems; drug and alcohol test, and remote patient monitoring and consumer self-test systems; and informatics and automation solutions for laboratories. In addition, the company provides pediatric and adult nutritional products; rhythm management, electrophysiology, heart failure, vascular, and structural heart devices for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases; diabetes care products, such as glucose and blood glucose monitoring systems; and neuromodulation devices for the management of chronic pain and movement disorders. Abbott Laboratories was founded in 1888 and is based in North Chicago, Illinois.

About Avita Medical

AVITA Medical, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a regenerative medicine company in the United States and internationally. The company's lead product is the RECELL System, a cell harvesting device used for the treatment of thermal burn wounds, full-thickness skin defects, and repigmentation of stable depigmented vitiligo lesions. It develops RECELL GO to control the manual process of disaggregation, filtration, and soak time. The company was formerly known as AVITA Therapeutics, Inc. AVITA Medical, Inc. was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in Valencia, California.