Contrasting Danaher (NYSE:DHR) and SeaStar Medical (NASDAQ:ICU)

SeaStar Medical (NASDAQ:ICU) and Danaher (NYSE:DHR) are both medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SeaStar Medical and Danaher”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SeaStar Medical	$140,000.00	64.43	-$24.83 million	($16.50)	-0.14
Danaher	$24.57 billion	6.29	$3.90 billion	$5.04	43.42

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

Profitability

This table compares SeaStar Medical and Danaher’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SeaStar Medical	-1,551.08%	-414.50%	-151.13%
Danaher	14.71%	10.81%	6.90%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.7% of SeaStar Medical shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.1% of Danaher shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of SeaStar Medical shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.1% of Danaher shares are held by 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.

Volatility & Risk

SeaStar Medical has a beta of -1, meaning that its share price is 200% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Danaher has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for SeaStar Medical and Danaher, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SeaStar Medical	1	0	0	0	1.00
Danaher	0	5	20	0	2.80

Danaher has a consensus price target of $252.32, indicating a potential upside of 15.31%. Given Danaher’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Danaher is more favorable than SeaStar Medical.

Summary

Danaher beats SeaStar Medical on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SeaStar Medical

SeaStar Medical Holding Corporation, a medical device company, develops a platform therapy to reduce the consequences of hyperinflammation on vital organs in the United States. The company offers inflammatory response to fend off infections and repair damaged tissue in the body. It is also developing products in various therapeutic areas, including pediatric and adult acute kidney injury on CRRT; cardiorenal syndrome in congestive heart failure; myocardial stunning in end stage renal disease; and hepatorenal syndrome. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

About Danaher

Danaher Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Biotechnology segments offers bioprocess technologies, consumables, and services that advance, accelerate, and integrate the development and manufacture of therapeutics; cell line and cell culture media development services; cell culture media, process liquids and buffers for manufacturing, chromatography resins, filtration technologies, aseptic fill finish; single-use hardware and consumables and services, such as the design and installation of full manufacturing suites; lab filtration, separation, and purification; lab-scale protein purification and analytical tools; reagents, membranes, and services; and healthcare filtration solutions. The Life Sciences segment provides mass spectrometers; flow cytometry, genomics, lab automation, centrifugation, liquid handling automation instruments, antibodies and reagents, and particle counting and characterization; microscopes; protein consumables; industrial filtration products; and genomic medicines, such as custom nucleic acid products, plasmid DNA, RNA, and proteins under the ABCAM, ALDEVRON, BECKMAN COULTER, IDT, LEICA MICROSYSTEMS, MOLECULAR DEVICES, PALL, PHENOMENEX and SCIEX brands. The Diagnostics segment offers chemistry, immunoassay, microbiology, and automation systems; and molecular, acute care, and pathology diagnostics products. This segment also provides clinical instruments, reagents, consumables, software, and services for hospitals, physicians' offices, reference laboratories, and other critical care settings. The company was formerly known as Diversified Mortgage Investors, Inc. and changed its name to Danaher Corporation in 1984. Danaher Corporation was founded in 1969 and is based in Washington, the District of Columbia.