Head to Head Review: Harvard Bioscience (HBIO) versus The Competition

Harvard Bioscience (NASDAQ:HBIO) is one of 109 public companies in the “Life Sciences Tools & Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Harvard Bioscience to similar companies based on the strength of its dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

Harvard Bioscience has a beta of 1.5, suggesting that its stock price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Harvard Bioscience’s peers have a beta of 1.14, suggesting that their average stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Harvard Bioscience and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Harvard Bioscience	-11.86%	-33.13%	-4.80%
Harvard Bioscience Competitors	-540.86%	-166.48%	-13.59%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Harvard Bioscience and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Harvard Bioscience	1	1	1	0	2.00
Harvard Bioscience Competitors	943	3157	5466	175	2.50

Harvard Bioscience presently has a consensus target price of $6.75, suggesting a potential downside of 23.30%. As a group, “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies have a potential downside of 8.21%. Given Harvard Bioscience’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Harvard Bioscience has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.9% of Harvard Bioscience shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.4% of shares of all “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 17.0% of Harvard Bioscience shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.2% of shares of all “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Harvard Bioscience and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Harvard Bioscience	$87.81 million	-$56.70 million	-3.81
Harvard Bioscience Competitors	$2.29 billion	$55.11 billion	-0.34

Harvard Bioscience’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Harvard Bioscience. Harvard Bioscience is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Harvard Bioscience peers beat Harvard Bioscience on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

Harvard Bioscience Company Profile

Harvard Bioscience, Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells technologies, products, and services for life science applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers cellular and molecular technology products, such as syringe and peristaltic infusion pump products; electroporation and electrofusion instruments, amino acid analyzers, spectrophotometers, and other equipment for molecular level testing and research; and precision scientific measuring instrumentation and equipment, including data acquisition systems for cellular analysis, complete micro electrode array solutions for in vivo recordings, and in vitro systems for extracellular recordings. It also provides preclinical products that includes platform to assess physiological data from organisms for research, drug discovery, and drug development services comprising implantable and externally worn telemetry systems for use in research to collect cardiovascular, central nervous system, respiratory, and metabolic data; behavioral products; isolated organ and surgical products, instruments and accessories for tissue, and organ-based lab research, including surgical products, infusion systems, and behavior research systems; turn-key respiratory system solutions, including plethysmograph chambers, data acquisition hardware, physiological signal analysis software, and final report generation; inhalation and exposure systems; and GLP-capable data acquisition and analysis systems. The company markets its products through sales organizations, websites, and distributors to research scientists in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities, hospitals, and government laboratories; and contract research organizations and academic labs. It primarily sells its products under Harvard Apparatus, DSI, Buxco, Biochrom, BTX, Heka, Hugo Sachs, Multichannel Systems MCS GmbH, and Panlab brands. Harvard Bioscience, Inc. was founded in 1901 and is based in Holliston, Massachusetts.