Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) vs. Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC) Head to Head Analysis

Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC) and Natera (NASDAQ:NTRA) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Sotera Health and Natera’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sotera Health	4.82%	43.69%	6.54%
Natera	-14.61%	-25.07%	-17.74%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Sotera Health and Natera, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sotera Health	1	2	3	0	2.33
Natera	2	3	17	0	2.68

Sotera Health currently has a consensus price target of $17.40, indicating a potential upside of 7.87%. Natera has a consensus price target of $208.58, indicating a potential upside of 0.90%. Given Sotera Health’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Sotera Health is more favorable than Natera.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.0% of Sotera Health shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.9% of Natera shares are held by institutional investors. 55.1% of Sotera Health shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.6% of Natera shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sotera Health and Natera”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sotera Health	$1.10 billion	4.16	$44.34 million	$0.19	84.89
Natera	$1.70 billion	16.81	-$190.43 million	($2.29)	-90.27

Sotera Health has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Natera. Natera is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sotera Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Sotera Health has a beta of 1.82, suggesting that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Natera has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its share price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sotera Health beats Natera on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sotera Health

Sotera Health Company engages in the provision of sterilization, lab testing, and advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Sterigenics, Nordion, and Nelson Labs. It provides mission-critical end-to-end sterilization services, including gamma and electron beam irradiation, and ethylene oxide processing, as well as designs, installs, and maintains gamma irradiation systems. The company also provides microbiological and analytical chemistry testing, as well as technical assistance, regulatory consulting, and advisory services. It serves medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food safety, agricultural products, cancer treatment, and high-performance materials industries, as well as commercial, advanced, and specialty application industries. The company was formerly known as Sotera Health Topco, Inc. and changed its name to Sotera Health Company in October 2020. Sotera Health Company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Broadview Heights, Ohio.

About Natera

Natera, Inc., a diagnostics company, develops and commercializes molecular testing services worldwide. Its products include Panorama, a non-invasive prenatal test that screens for chromosomal abnormalities of a fetus, as well as in twin pregnancies; Horizon carrier screening test for individuals and couples determine if they are carriers of genetic variations that cause certain genetic conditions; Vistara single-gene NIPT screens for 25 single-gene disorders that cause severe skeletal, cardiac, and neurological conditions; Spectrum, preimplantation genetic tests for couples undergoing IVF; Anora that analyzes miscarriage tissue from women; Empower, a hereditary cancer screening test; and non-invasive prenatal paternity product, which allows a couple to establish paternity without waiting for the child to be born. The company also provides Signatera, a ctDNA blood test for molecular residual disease assessment and surveillance of disease recurrence in patients previously diagnosed with cancer; Altera, a tissue based comprehensive genomic profiling test; Prospera to assess active rejection in patients who have undergone kidney, heart, and lung transplantation; and Renasight, a kidney gene panel test. In addition, it offers Constellation, a cloud-based software product that enables laboratory customers to gain access through the cloud to the company's algorithms and bioinformatics to validate and launch tests. The company offers products through its direct sales force, as well as through a network of laboratory and distribution partners. It has a partnership agreement with BGI Genomics Co., Ltd. to develop, manufacture, and commercialize NGS-based genetic testing assays; and Foundation Medicine, Inc. to develop and commercialize personalized circulating tumor DNA monitoring assays. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.