Mettler-Toledo International (NYSE:MTD) versus Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) Head-To-Head Review

Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) and Mettler-Toledo International (NYSE:MTD) are both healthcare companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Qiagen and Mettler-Toledo International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Qiagen	0	9	4	1	2.43
Mettler-Toledo International	1	9	5	0	2.27

Qiagen currently has a consensus price target of $43.51, suggesting a potential downside of 2.31%. Mettler-Toledo International has a consensus price target of $1,459.54, suggesting a potential downside of 4.45%. Given Qiagen’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Qiagen is more favorable than Mettler-Toledo International.

Risk and Volatility

Qiagen has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mettler-Toledo International has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

70.0% of Qiagen shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.1% of Mettler-Toledo International shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.0% of Qiagen shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Mettler-Toledo International shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Qiagen and Mettler-Toledo International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Qiagen	19.49%	14.47%	8.34%
Mettler-Toledo International	21.91%	-1,212.14%	25.11%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Qiagen and Mettler-Toledo International”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Qiagen	$2.10 billion	4.37	$424.88 million	$1.95	22.84
Mettler-Toledo International	$4.03 billion	7.60	$869.19 million	$44.43	34.38

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

Summary

Mettler-Toledo International beats Qiagen on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN NV is a holding company, which engages in the provision of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. The company sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA, and proteins from blood, tissue, and other materials. The firm assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Its bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. The company was founded by Detlev H. Riesner and Metin Colpan on April 29, 1996, and is headquartered in Venlo, the Netherlands.

About Mettler-Toledo International

Mettler-Toledo International Inc. manufactures and supplies precision instruments and services in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and internationally. It operates through five segments: U.S. Operations, Swiss Operations, Western European Operations, Chinese Operations, and Other. The company’s laboratory instruments include laboratory balances, liquid pipetting solutions, automated laboratory reactors, real-time analytics, titrators, pH meters, process analytics sensors and analyzer technologies, physical value analyzers, density and refractometry, thermal analysis systems, and other analytical instruments; and LabX, a laboratory software platform to manage and analyze data generated from its instruments. Its industrial instruments comprise industrial weighing instruments and related terminals, automatic dimensional measurement and data capture solutions, vehicle scale systems, industrial software, metal detection equipment, x-ray systems, check weighing equipment, camera-based imaging equipment, track-and-trace solutions, and product inspection systems. The company’s retail weighing solutions consist of weighing and software solutions, AI-driven image recognition solution, and automated packaging and labelling solutions for the meat backroom. It serves the life science industry, independent research organizations, and testing labs; food and beverage manufacturers; food retailers; chemical, specialty chemical, and cosmetics companies; food retailers; transportation and logistics, metals, and electronics industries; and the academic community through its direct sales force and indirect distribution channels. Mettler-Toledo International Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.