Comparing IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) & Rapid Micro Biosystems (NASDAQ:RPID)

Rapid Micro Biosystems (NASDAQ:RPID) and IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Rapid Micro Biosystems and IQVIA, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rapid Micro Biosystems	1	0	1	1	2.67
IQVIA	0	6	15	2	2.83

Rapid Micro Biosystems currently has a consensus price target of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 158.06%. IQVIA has a consensus price target of $239.94, indicating a potential upside of 13.99%. Given Rapid Micro Biosystems’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Rapid Micro Biosystems is more favorable than IQVIA.

Profitability

This table compares Rapid Micro Biosystems and IQVIA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rapid Micro Biosystems	-145.63%	-63.07%	-48.33%
IQVIA	8.07%	30.70%	6.64%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.6% of Rapid Micro Biosystems shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.6% of IQVIA shares are owned by institutional investors. 30.0% of Rapid Micro Biosystems shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of IQVIA shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Rapid Micro Biosystems has a beta of 1.37, meaning that its share price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IQVIA has a beta of 1.34, meaning that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Rapid Micro Biosystems and IQVIA”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rapid Micro Biosystems	$28.05 million	4.89	-$46.89 million	($1.01)	-3.07
IQVIA	$15.41 billion	2.33	$1.37 billion	$7.29	28.88

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

Summary

IQVIA beats Rapid Micro Biosystems on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rapid Micro Biosystems

Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., a life sciences technology company, provides products for the detection of microbial contamination in the manufacture of pharmaceutical, medical devices, and personal care products in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and internationally. The company offers Growth Direct platform, which includes Growth Direct system, proprietary consumables, lab information management system connection software, and customer support and validation services. Its platform automates and modernizes the manual microbial quality control (MQC) testing workflows for therapeutic modalities, such as biologics, vaccines, cell and gene therapies, and sterile injectables. The company also provides onsite technical training services. Its solutions are used in environmental monitoring, water, bioburden, and sterility release testing applications. In addition, the company offers RMBNucleus software for the Growth Direct system; RMBNucleus Mold Alarm signals at the first sign of mold detection; RMBNucleus Central Manager portal streamlines coordination of multiple instruments; and Growth Direct LIMS connection software. Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc. was formerly known as Genomic Profiling Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc. in January 2007. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts.

About IQVIA

IQVIA Holdings Inc. engages in the provision of advanced analytics, technology solutions, and clinical research services to the life sciences industry in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates through three segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions, and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. The Technology & Analytics Solutions segment offers a range of cloud-based applications and related implementation services; real world solutions that enable life sciences and provider customers to generate and disseminate evidence, which informs health care decision making and improves patients’ outcomes; and strategic and implementation consulting services, such as advanced analytics and commercial processes outsourcing services. This segment also provides country level performance metrics related to sales of pharmaceutical products, prescribing trends, medical treatment, and promotional activity across various channels, including retail, hospital, and mail order; and measurement of sales or prescribing activity at the regional, zip code, and individual prescriber level. The Research & Development Solutions segment offers project management and clinical monitoring; clinical trial support; strategic planning and design services; and patient and site centric solutions, as well as central laboratory, genomic, bioanalytical, ADME, discovery, and vaccine and biomarker laboratory services. The Contract Sales & Medical Solutions segment provides health care provider and patient engagement services, and scientific strategy and medical affairs services. It serves pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device and diagnostic, and consumer health companies. The company has a collaboration with argenx SE. The company was formerly known as Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to IQVIA Holdings Inc. in November 2017. The company is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.