Reviewing Fulgent Genetics (NASDAQ:FLGT) & HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA)

Fulgent Genetics (NASDAQ:FLGT) and HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Fulgent Genetics and HCA Healthcare, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fulgent Genetics	1	2	1	0	2.00
HCA Healthcare	1	8	15	0	2.58

Fulgent Genetics presently has a consensus price target of $27.50, suggesting a potential upside of 33.62%. HCA Healthcare has a consensus price target of $463.70, suggesting a potential upside of 7.23%. Given Fulgent Genetics’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Fulgent Genetics is more favorable than HCA Healthcare.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

48.1% of Fulgent Genetics shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. 36.2% of Fulgent Genetics shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Fulgent Genetics and HCA Healthcare’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fulgent Genetics	-26.05%	-4.93%	-4.50%
HCA Healthcare	8.77%	-244.79%	11.10%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Fulgent Genetics and HCA Healthcare”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fulgent Genetics	$323.93 million	1.75	-$60.51 million	($2.82)	-7.30
HCA Healthcare	$78.01 billion	1.20	$6.78 billion	$29.87	14.48

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

Risk & Volatility

Fulgent Genetics has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

HCA Healthcare beats Fulgent Genetics on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fulgent Genetics

Fulgent Genetics, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides clinical diagnostic and therapeutic development solutions to physicians and patients in the United States and internationally. The company’s clinical diagnostic solutions include molecular diagnostic testing; genetic testing; anatomic pathology laboratory tests and testing services, such as gastrointestinal pathology, dermatopathology, urologic pathology, breast pathology, neuropathology, and hematopathology; oncology tests and testing services; and sequencer services related to hereditary cancer, reproductive health, and other diseases. Its therapeutic development solutions focus on developing drug candidates for treating a range of cancers using a nanoencapsulation and targeted therapy platform to enhance the therapeutic window and pharmacokinetic profile of new and existing cancer drugs. The company operates picture genetics platform, which includes gene probes, data suppression and comparison algorithms, adaptive learning software, and proprietary laboratory information management systems that helps customers to identify health markers in their personal DNA. It serves insurance, hospitals, medical institutions, other laboratories, governmental bodies, payors, municipalities and large corporations, and patients. The company was formerly known as Fulgent Diagnostics, Inc. and changed its name to Fulgent Genetics, Inc. in August 2016. Fulgent Genetics, Inc. was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in El Monte, California.

About HCA Healthcare

HCA Healthcare, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy. The company also operates outpatient health care facilities consisting of freestanding ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices, and various other facilities. In addition, it operates behavioral hospitals, which provide therapeutic programs comprising child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care, adolescent and adult alcohol, drug abuse treatment, and counseling services. The company was formerly known as HCA Holdings, Inc. HCA Healthcare, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.