Reviewing Spectral AI (NASDAQ:MDAI) and IQVIA (NYSE:IQV)

Spectral AI (NASDAQ:MDAI) and IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Spectral AI and IQVIA”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Spectral AI	$19.65 million	3.93	-$7.57 million	($0.53)	-4.58
IQVIA	$16.31 billion	1.75	$1.36 billion	$8.07	21.25

IQVIA has higher revenue and earnings than Spectral AI. Spectral AI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than IQVIA, 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 Spectral AI and IQVIA, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Spectral AI	1	0	1	0	2.00
IQVIA	0	2	13	2	3.00

Spectral AI presently has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 23.46%. IQVIA has a consensus price target of $225.69, suggesting a potential upside of 31.62%. Given IQVIA’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe IQVIA is more favorable than Spectral AI.

Risk & Volatility

Spectral AI has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IQVIA has a beta of 1.18, meaning that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Spectral AI and IQVIA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Spectral AI	-85.58%	N/A	-72.97%
IQVIA	8.33%	30.50%	6.53%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.1% of Spectral AI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.6% of IQVIA shares are held by institutional investors. 13.7% of Spectral AI shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of IQVIA shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

IQVIA beats Spectral AI on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Spectral AI

Spectral AI, Inc., an artificial intelligence (AI) company, focuses on developing predictive medical diagnostics in the United States. The company develops medical diagnostics for faster and accurate treatment decisions in wound care with applications involving patients with burns and diabetic foot ulcers. Its products include DeepView System, a predictive analytics platform integrated with the predictive AI-Burn, which combines AI algorithms and multispectral imaging (MSI) imaging for an assessment of wound healing potential and offers clinicians an objective and immediate assessment of a wound’s healing potential prior to treatment or other medical intervention; and DeepView SnapShot M, a handheld, portable, and wireless diagnostic tool, that provides a potential enhanced and expanded use for the government and emergency care, first responders, and potentially home health care professionals. The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

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.