athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (NASDAQ:MDRX) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitabiliy, dividends and earnings.
Profitability
This table compares athenahealth and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| athenahealth | 2.80% | 6.91% | 3.80% |
| Allscripts Healthcare Solutions | -2.93% | 5.75% | 1.97% |
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for athenahealth and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| athenahealth | 2 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 2.43 |
| Allscripts Healthcare Solutions | 1 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 2.44 |
athenahealth presently has a consensus price target of $145.85, suggesting a potential downside of 6.46%. Allscripts Healthcare Solutions has a consensus price target of $14.50, suggesting a potential upside of 19.83%. Given Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Allscripts Healthcare Solutions is more favorable than athenahealth.
Volatility and Risk
athenahealth has a beta of 1.79, indicating that its stock price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions has a beta of 1.39, indicating that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares athenahealth and Allscripts Healthcare Solutions’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| athenahealth | $1.11 billion | 5.60 | $112.40 million | $0.80 | 194.91 |
| Allscripts Healthcare Solutions | $1.62 billion | 1.36 | $153.38 million | ($0.26) | -46.54 |
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions has higher revenue and earnings than athenahealth. Allscripts Healthcare Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than athenahealth, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
athenahealth beats Allscripts Healthcare Solutions on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.
About athenahealth
athenahealth, Inc. provides network-based medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement, care coordination and population health services. The Company also offers Epocrates and other point-of-care mobile applications. The Company delivers majority of its service offerings through a single instance of cloud-based software, athenaNet. The Company has a range of network-enabled services to support healthcare providers across the continuum of care. The Company offers various combinations of its services to its clients, including athenaOne and athenaOne for Hospitals and Health Systems, depending on whether they are medical groups and practices or hospitals and larger health systems. As of December 31, 2016, the Company connected care across a national network of approximately 88,000 providers and approximately 86 million patients. Its suite of network-enabled services includes athenaCollector, athenaClinicals, athenaCommunicator, athenaCoordinator, Population Health and Epocrates.
About Allscripts Healthcare Solutions
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (Allscripts) delivers information technology (IT) solutions and services to help healthcare organizations. The Company operates through three segments: Clinical and Financial Solutions, Population Health, and Netsmart. The Clinical and Financial Solutions segment includes the sale of integrated clinical software applications and financial and information solutions. The Population Health segment includes the sale of health management and coordinated care solutions, which focus on hospitals, health systems, other care facilities and accountable care organizations (ACOs). The Netsmart segment provides software and technology solutions to the health and human services industry, which includes behavioral health, addiction treatment, intellectual and developmental disability services, child and family services and public health segments, as well as to post-acute home care organizations.
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