Critical Analysis: INVO Fertility (NASDAQ:IVF) & Auna (NYSE:AUNA)

Auna (NYSE:AUNA) and INVO Fertility (NASDAQ:IVF) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, dividends, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

12.0% of INVO Fertility shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of INVO Fertility 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.

Volatility & Risk

Auna has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, INVO Fertility has a beta of 2.39, meaning that its stock price is 139% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Auna and INVO Fertility, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Auna	1	2	1	1	2.40
INVO Fertility	1	0	0	1	2.50

Auna presently has a consensus target price of $6.97, indicating a potential upside of 29.49%. INVO Fertility has a consensus target price of $20.00, indicating a potential upside of 3,227.79%. Given INVO Fertility’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe INVO Fertility is more favorable than Auna.

Profitability

This table compares Auna and INVO Fertility’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Auna	0.44%	12.88%	3.24%
INVO Fertility	-116.29%	-85.54%	-31.05%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Auna and INVO Fertility”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Auna	$1.23 billion	0.32	$27.39 million	$0.07	76.86
INVO Fertility	$6.84 million	0.22	-$25.13 million	($33.83)	-0.02

Auna has higher revenue and earnings than INVO Fertility. INVO Fertility is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Auna, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Auna beats INVO Fertility on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Auna

Auna S.A., a healthcare service provider, operates hospitals and clinics in Mexico, Peru, and Colombia. The company provides prepaid healthcare plans in Peru; and dental and vision plans in Mexico. The company was founded in 1989 and is based in Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

About INVO Fertility

INVO Bioscience, Inc., together with its subsidiary, a healthcare services fertility company, provides assisted reproductive technology solutions worldwide. It offers INVOcell, a medical device that allows fertilization and early embryo development to take place in vivo within the woman’s body. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Sarasota, Florida.