Head to Head Contrast: National Research (NASDAQ:NRC) and DIAGNOS (OTCMKTS:DGNOF)

National Research (NASDAQ:NRC) and DIAGNOS (OTCMKTS:DGNOF) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

47.3% of National Research shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.2% of National Research shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

National Research has a beta of 0.34, indicating that its stock price is 66% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, DIAGNOS has a beta of -0.1, indicating that its stock price is 110% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for National Research and DIAGNOS, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
National Research	0	1	1	0	2.50
DIAGNOS	0	0	0	0	0.00

National Research currently has a consensus target price of $26.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.54%. Given National Research’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe National Research is more favorable than DIAGNOS.

Profitability

This table compares National Research and DIAGNOS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
National Research	4.18%	164.26%	14.67%
DIAGNOS	-7,014.89%	N/A	-192.10%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares National Research and DIAGNOS”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
National Research	$137.39 million	3.22	$11.60 million	$0.25	77.88
DIAGNOS	$50,000.00	530.64	-$3.30 million	($0.04)	-5.48

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

Summary

National Research beats DIAGNOS on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About National Research

National Research Corporation provides analytics and insights that facilitate measurement and enhancement of the patient and employee experience. Its portfolio of subscription-based solutions provides actionable information and analysis to healthcare organizations across a range of mission-critical, constituent-related elements, including patient experience, service recovery, care transitions, employee engagement, reputation management, and brand loyalty. The company also offers marketing solutions that allow the tracking of awareness, perception, and consistency of healthcare brands; assessment of competitive differentiators; and enhanced segmentation tools to evaluate needs, wants, and behaviors of communities through real-time competitive assessments and enhanced segmentation tools. In addition, it provides experience solutions, such as patient experience, employee engagement, health risk assessments, care transition, and improvement tools. Further, the company provides reputation solutions that allow healthcare organizations to share a picture of their organization and ensure that timely and relevant content informs consumer decision-making; and governance solutions for not-for-profit hospital and health system boards of directors, executives, and physician leadership. National Research Corporation was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska.

About DIAGNOS

DIAGNOS Inc. provides software-based services primarily in Canada, the United States, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Costa Rica. The company offers healthcare services through Computer Assisted Retina Analysis, a web-based software tool that assists healthcare professionals for the detection of diabetic retinopathy; and allows eye care specialist to visualize both normal retinal landmarks and pathological changes. It also provides various consulting services in the fields of data analysis and artificial intelligence. DIAGNOS Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Brossard, Canada.