Reviewing Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and Senestech (NASDAQ:SNES)

Senestech (NASDAQ:SNES) and Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Senestech and Medtronic, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Senestech	1	1	0	1	2.33
Medtronic	0	11	17	0	2.61

Medtronic has a consensus target price of $99.00, indicating a potential upside of 23.10%. Given Medtronic’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Medtronic is more favorable than Senestech.

Profitability

This table compares Senestech and Medtronic’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Senestech	-304.22%	-67.60%	-49.21%
Medtronic	13.20%	14.51%	7.76%

Risk & Volatility

Senestech has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its share price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medtronic has a beta of 0.58, meaning that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

5.2% of Senestech shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.1% of Medtronic shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Senestech shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Medtronic shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Senestech and Medtronic”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Senestech	$2.22 million	3.63	-$6.38 million	($1.89)	-0.80
Medtronic	$36.36 billion	2.83	$4.80 billion	$3.73	21.56

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

Summary

Medtronic beats Senestech on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Senestech

SenesTech, Inc. develops a technology for managing animal pest populations through fertility control. It offers ContraPest, a liquid bait that limits reproduction of male and female rats. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

About Medtronic

Medtronic plc develops, manufactures, and sells device-based medical therapies to healthcare systems, physicians, clinicians, and patients worldwide. Its Cardiovascular Portfolio segment offers implantable cardiac pacemakers, cardioverter defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices; cardiac ablation products; insertable cardiac monitor systems; TYRX products; and remote monitoring and patient-centered software. It also provides aortic valves, surgical valve replacement and repair products, endovascular stent grafts and accessories, and transcatheter pulmonary valves; and percutaneous coronary intervention products, percutaneous angioplasty balloons, and products. The company's Medical Surgical Portfolio segment offers surgical stapling devices, vessel sealing instruments, wound closure, electrosurgery products, surgical artificial intelligence and robotic-assisted surgery products, hernia mechanical devices, mesh implants, gynecology and lung products, and various therapies to treat diseases, as well as products in the fields of minimally invasive gastrointestinal and hepatologic diagnostics and therapies, patient monitoring, airway management and ventilation therapies, and renal disease. Its Neuroscience Portfolio segment offers products for spinal surgeons; neurosurgeons; neurologists; pain management specialists; anesthesiologists; orthopedic surgeons; urologists; urogynecologists; interventional radiologists; ear, nose, and throat specialists; and systems that incorporate energy surgical instruments. It also provides image-guided surgery and intra-operative imaging systems and robotic guidance systems used in robot assisted spine procedures; and therapies for vasculature in and around the brain. The company's Diabetes Operating Unit segment offers insulin pumps and consumables, continuous glucose monitoring systems, smart insulin pen systems, and consumables and supplies. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.