Pulmonx (NASDAQ:LUNG) vs. Talkspace (NASDAQ:TALK) Head-To-Head Review

Talkspace (NASDAQ:TALK) and Pulmonx (NASDAQ:LUNG) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Talkspace has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pulmonx has a beta of 0.07, indicating that its share price is 93% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

57.4% of Talkspace shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Pulmonx shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.5% of Talkspace shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.8% of Pulmonx 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Talkspace and Pulmonx, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Talkspace	0	3	4	0	2.57
Pulmonx	1	4	5	0	2.40

Talkspace currently has a consensus price target of $4.88, suggesting a potential upside of 29.31%. Pulmonx has a consensus price target of $6.81, suggesting a potential upside of 363.07%. Given Pulmonx’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Pulmonx is more favorable than Talkspace.

Profitability

This table compares Talkspace and Pulmonx’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Talkspace	1.98%	3.75%	3.17%
Pulmonx	-61.91%	-77.58%	-37.90%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Talkspace and Pulmonx”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Talkspace	$187.59 million	3.33	$1.15 million	$0.03	125.67
Pulmonx	$83.79 million	0.72	-$56.39 million	($1.41)	-1.04

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

Summary

Talkspace beats Pulmonx on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Talkspace

Talkspace, Inc. operates as a virtual behavioral healthcare company in the United States. The company offers psychotherapy and psychiatry services through its platform to individuals, enterprises, and health plans and employee assistance programs. It provides text, audio, and video-based psychotherapy from licensed therapists. The company offers Talkspace Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and Talkspace Behavioral Health plan (BH) that provides online therapy to members through BH and EAP offerings; and Talkspace for Business for members to access its platform services on a benefit plan paid by the enterprise. It serves its platform through third-party platforms or marketplace, such as Apple App Store and Google Play App Store. Talkspace, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Pulmonx

Pulmonx Corporation, a commercial-stage medical technology company, provides minimally invasive devices for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. The company offers Zephyr Endobronchial Valve, a solution for the treatment of patients with hyperinflation associated with severe emphysema; and Chartis Pulmonary Assessment System, a balloon catheter and console system with flow and pressure sensors that are used to assess the presence of collateral ventilation. It also offers StratX Lung Analysis Platform, a cloud-based quantitative computed tomography analysis service that offers information on emphysema destruction, fissure completeness, and lobar volume to help identify target lobes for the treatment with Zephyr Valves. The company serves emphysema patients in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company was formerly known as Pulmonx and changed its name to Pulmonx Corporation in December 2013. Pulmonx Corporation was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.