Critical Review: QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) & LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT)

QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) and LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for QuidelOrtho and LeMaitre Vascular, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
QuidelOrtho	3	2	1	0	1.67
LeMaitre Vascular	0	3	4	1	2.75

QuidelOrtho currently has a consensus price target of $28.25, indicating a potential upside of 123.50%. LeMaitre Vascular has a consensus price target of $105.80, indicating a potential downside of 5.57%. Given QuidelOrtho’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe QuidelOrtho is more favorable than LeMaitre Vascular.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

99.0% of QuidelOrtho shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.6% of LeMaitre Vascular shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of QuidelOrtho shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of LeMaitre Vascular shares are owned 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares QuidelOrtho and LeMaitre Vascular”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
QuidelOrtho	$2.73 billion	0.32	-$1.13 billion	($16.66)	-0.76
LeMaitre Vascular	$249.60 million	10.26	$57.73 million	$2.51	44.64

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

Risk and Volatility

QuidelOrtho has a beta of 0.75, suggesting that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LeMaitre Vascular has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares QuidelOrtho and LeMaitre Vascular’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
QuidelOrtho	-41.46%	5.91%	2.37%
LeMaitre Vascular	23.13%	14.72%	9.30%

Summary

LeMaitre Vascular beats QuidelOrtho on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About QuidelOrtho

QuidelOrtho Corporation provides diagnostic testing solutions. The company operates through Labs, Transfusion Medicine, Point-of-Care, and Molecular Diagnostics business units. The Labs business unit provides clinical chemistry laboratory instruments and tests that measure target chemicals in bodily fluids for the evaluation of health and the clinical management of patients; immunoassay laboratory instruments and tests, which measure proteins as they act as antigens in the spread of disease, antibodies in the immune response spurred by disease, or markers of proper organ function and health; testing products to detect and monitor disease progression across a spectrum of therapeutic areas; and specialized diagnostic solutions. The Transfusion Medicine business unit offers immunohematology instruments and tests used for blood typing to ensure patient-donor compatibility in blood transfusions; and donor screening instruments and tests used for blood and plasma screening for infectious diseases. The Point-of-Care business unit provides instruments and tests to provide rapid results across a continuum of point-of-care settings. The Molecular Diagnostics business unit offers polymerase chain reaction thermocyclers; amplification systems; and sample-to-result molecular instruments and tests for syndromic infectious disease diagnostics. The company sells its products directly to end users through a direct sales force; and through a network of distributors for professional use in physician offices, hospitals, clinical laboratories, reference laboratories, urgent care clinics, universities, retail clinics, pharmacies, wellness screening centers, blood banks, and donor centers, as well as for individual, non-professional, and over-the-counter use. It operates in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, China, and internationally. The company was incorporated in 1979 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About LeMaitre Vascular

LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices and implants used in the field of vascular surgery worldwide. It offers human cadaver tissue cryopreservation services; angioscope, a fiberoptic catheter used for viewing the lumen of a blood vessel; embolectomy catheters to remove blood clots from arteries; thrombectomy catheters for removing thrombi in the venous system; occlusion catheters that temporarily occlude the blood flow; and perfusion catheters to perfuse the blood and other fluids into the vasculature. The company also provides artegraft biologic graft, a bovine carotid artery used for dialysis access; XenoSure biologic patches, used for closure of vessels after surgical intervention; VascuCel and CardioCel biologic patches, used in vessel repair, heart repair and reconstruction, and neonatal repairs; cardiovascular patches; carotid shunts that temporarily shunt the blood to the brain during the removal of plaque in a carotid endarterectomy surgery; biosynthetic vascular graft indicated for lower extremity bypass and dialysis access; and vascular grafts used to bypass or replace diseased arteries. In addition, it offers radiopaque tape, a medical-grade tape applied to the skin that enables surgeons and interventionalists to cross-refer between the inside and the outside of a patient’s body and allows them to locate tributaries or lesions beneath the skin. Further, the company provides valvulotomes, which cut or disrupt valves in the saphenous vein to function as an artery to carry blood past diseased arteries to the lower leg or the foot; and closure systems to attach vessels to one another with titanium clips instead of sutures. It markets its products through a direct sales force and distributors. The company was formerly known as Vascutech, Inc. and changed its name to LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. in April 2001. LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. was incorporated in 1983 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.