Reviewing Issuer Direct (NYSE:ISDR) and Astrana Health (NASDAQ:ASTH)

Astrana Health (NASDAQ:ASTH) and Issuer Direct (NYSE:ISDR) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Astrana Health and Issuer Direct’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Astrana Health	3.63%	9.37%	5.32%
Issuer Direct	-4.54%	5.03%	2.80%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Astrana Health and Issuer Direct, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Astrana Health	0	3	6	1	2.80
Issuer Direct	0	0	0	0	0.00

Astrana Health presently has a consensus price target of $53.29, indicating a potential upside of 69.48%. Given Astrana Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Astrana Health is more favorable than Issuer Direct.

Volatility & Risk

Astrana Health has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Issuer Direct has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Astrana Health and Issuer Direct”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Astrana Health	$2.03 billion	0.77	$60.72 million	$0.89	35.33
Issuer Direct	$33.38 million	0.00	$770,000.00	($0.35)	N/A

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.8% of Astrana Health shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.0% of Issuer Direct shares are held by institutional investors. 8.5% of Astrana Health shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 26.9% of Issuer Direct shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Astrana Health beats Issuer Direct on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Astrana Health

Astrana Health, Inc., Inc., a physician-centric technology-powered healthcare management company, provides medical care services in the United States. It operates through three segments: Care Partners, Care Delivery, and Care Enablement. The company is leveraging its proprietary population health management and healthcare delivery platform, operates an integrated, value-based healthcare model which empowers the providers in its network to deliver care to its patients. It offers care coordination services to patients, families, primary care physicians, specialists, acute care hospitals, alternative sites of inpatient care, physician groups, and health plans. The company's physician network consists of primary care physicians, specialist physicians and extenders, and hospitalists. It serves patients, primarily covered by private or public insurance, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and health maintenance organization plans; and non-insured patients. The company was formerly known as Apollo Medical Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Astrana Health, Inc. in February 2024. Astrana Health, Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Alhambra, California.

About Issuer Direct

Issuer Direct Corporation operates as a communications and compliance company, provides solutions for both public relations and investor relations professionals in the United States and internationally. The company provides press release distribution, media databases, media monitoring, and newsrooms through media advantage platform; ACCESSWIRE, a news dissemination and media outreach service; and Webcaster Platform, a cloud-based webcast, webinar, and virtual meeting platform that delivers live and on-demand streaming of events to audiences of various sizes, as well as allows customers to create, produce, and deliver events. It also offers professional conference and events software, a mobile app that offers organizers, issuers, and investors to register, request, and approve one-on-one meetings, as well as manage schedules, perform event promotion and sponsorship, print attendee badges, and manage lodging; and investor relations content network, a series of data feeds, which include news feeds, stock feeds, fundamentals, regulatory filings, corporate governance, and other components. In addition, the company provides whistleblower hotline, a system that delivers secure notifications and basic incident workflow management processes that align with a company’s corporate governance whistleblower policy; stock transfer module, which offers access to real-time information about their shareholders, stock ledgers, and reports, as well as issues new shares; and proxy module, a real-time voting platform for customers and their shareholders of record. It serves public and private companies, mutual funds, law firms, brokerage firms, investment banks, individuals, and other institutions. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina.