Reviewing Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) and OptimizeRx (NASDAQ:OPRX)
by Renee Jackson · The Cerbat GemOptimizeRx (NASDAQ:OPRX – Get Free Report) and Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT – Get Free Report) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for OptimizeRx and Health Catalyst, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| OptimizeRx | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 2.56 |
| Health Catalyst | 1 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2.11 |
OptimizeRx currently has a consensus price target of $11.57, indicating a potential upside of 26.46%. Health Catalyst has a consensus price target of $2.15, indicating a potential upside of 27.22%. Given Health Catalyst’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Health Catalyst is more favorable than OptimizeRx.
Risk and Volatility
OptimizeRx has a beta of 1.26, meaning that its stock price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Health Catalyst has a beta of 1.54, meaning that its stock price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares OptimizeRx and Health Catalyst”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| OptimizeRx | $98.65 million | 1.75 | $5.13 million | $0.23 | 39.78 |
| Health Catalyst | $292.25 million | 0.44 | -$177.97 million | ($3.68) | -0.46 |
OptimizeRx has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Health Catalyst. Health Catalyst is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than OptimizeRx, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares OptimizeRx and Health Catalyst’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| OptimizeRx | 4.66% | 9.44% | 7.11% |
| Health Catalyst | -90.61% | -1.83% | -0.80% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
76.5% of OptimizeRx shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.0% of Health Catalyst shares are held by institutional investors. 7.5% of OptimizeRx shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.4% of Health Catalyst shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
OptimizeRx beats Health Catalyst on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About OptimizeRx
OptimizeRx Corporation, a digital health technology company, enables care-focused engagement between life sciences organizations, healthcare providers, and patients at critical junctures throughout the patient care journey. It offers various tech-enabled marketing solutions through its Artificial Intelligence-generated Dynamic Audience and Activation Platform, which enables customers to execute traditional marketing campaigns on its proprietary digital point-of-care network, as well as dynamic marketing campaigns that optimize audiences in real time to increase the value of treatment information for healthcare professionals and patients in response to clinical care events. The company was founded in 2006 and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts.
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.