Analyzing Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) and Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC)

Alignment Healthcare (NASDAQ:ALHC) and Sotera Health (NASDAQ:SHC) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Alignment Healthcare and Sotera Health”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alignment Healthcare	$3.95 billion	0.80	-$720,000.00	$0.09	170.22
Sotera Health	$1.16 billion	3.83	$77.94 million	$0.41	38.15

Sotera Health has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Alignment Healthcare. Sotera Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alignment Healthcare, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Alignment Healthcare and Sotera Health, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alignment Healthcare	0	3	6	2	2.91
Sotera Health	0	3	7	0	2.70

Alignment Healthcare presently has a consensus price target of $24.30, indicating a potential upside of 58.62%. Sotera Health has a consensus price target of $20.33, indicating a potential upside of 30.01%. Given Alignment Healthcare’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Alignment Healthcare is more favorable than Sotera Health.

Risk & Volatility

Alignment Healthcare has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sotera Health has a beta of 1.82, indicating that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Alignment Healthcare and Sotera Health’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alignment Healthcare	0.47%	11.50%	1.79%
Sotera Health	9.91%	39.73%	7.05%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

86.2% of Alignment Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.0% of Sotera Health shares are held by institutional investors. 5.2% of Alignment Healthcare shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.4% of Sotera Health shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Sotera Health beats Alignment Healthcare on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alignment Healthcare

Alignment Healthcare, Inc., a tech-enabled Medicare advantage company, operates consumer-centric health care platform for seniors in the United States. It provides customized health care designed to meet the needs of a diverse array of seniors through its Medicare advantage plans. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in Orange, California.

About Sotera Health

Sotera Health Company engages in the provision of sterilization, lab testing, and advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Sterigenics, Nordion, and Nelson Labs. It provides mission-critical end-to-end sterilization services, including gamma and electron beam irradiation, and ethylene oxide processing, as well as designs, installs, and maintains gamma irradiation systems. The company also provides microbiological and analytical chemistry testing, as well as technical assistance, regulatory consulting, and advisory services. It serves medical devices, pharmaceuticals, food safety, agricultural products, cancer treatment, and high-performance materials industries, as well as commercial, advanced, and specialty application industries. The company was formerly known as Sotera Health Topco, Inc. and changed its name to Sotera Health Company in October 2020. Sotera Health Company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Broadview Heights, Ohio.