Financial Contrast: Quanterix (NASDAQ:QTRX) and Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP)

Quanterix (NASDAQ:QTRX) and Medpace (NASDAQ:MEDP) are both healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.5% of Quanterix shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.0% of Medpace shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Quanterix shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 20.5% of Medpace shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Quanterix and Medpace, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Quanterix	1	2	0	0	1.67
Medpace	0	11	2	0	2.15

Quanterix currently has a consensus target price of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.82%. Medpace has a consensus target price of $584.18, suggesting a potential upside of 1.90%. Given Quanterix’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Quanterix is more favorable than Medpace.

Volatility & Risk

Quanterix has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Medpace has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Quanterix and Medpace”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Quanterix	$138.90 million	1.26	-$107.15 million	($2.36)	-1.57
Medpace	$2.53 billion	6.32	$451.12 million	$17.06	33.60

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

Profitability

This table compares Quanterix and Medpace’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Quanterix	-71.86%	-23.92%	-17.66%
Medpace	17.67%	110.15%	24.84%

Summary

Medpace beats Quanterix on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Quanterix

Quanterix Corporation, a life sciences company, engages in development and marketing of digital immunoassay platforms that advances precision health for life sciences research and diagnostics in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. The company offers HD-X instrument, a protein detection platform; and SR-X instrument that enables researchers to apply Simoa detection in an expanded range of applications. It also provides SP-X instrument that is based on Simoa planar array technology for the measurement of multiplex chemiluminescent immunoassays. The company's products include assays include all components required to run enzyme-based immunoassay, such as beads, capture and detector reagents, and enzyme reagents and substrate; and replacement parts, reagents, and antibodies. In addition, it offers contract research services, including sample testing, homebrew assay development, custom assay development, lucent diagnostic, and LDT testing services. The company primarily operates in the areas of neurology, oncology, cardiology, infectious diseases, and inflammation. It sells its products for the life science research sector primarily to laboratories associated with academic and governmental research institutions, as well as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and contract research companies through a direct field sale, support organizations, and distributors or sales agents. The company was formerly known as Digital Genomics, Inc. and changed its name to Quanterix Corporation in August 2007. Quanterix Corporation was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts.

About Medpace

Medpace Holdings, Inc. engages in the provision of outsourced clinical development services to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Its services include medical department, clinical trial management, data-driven feasibility, study-start-up, clinical monitoring, regulatory affairs, patient recruitment and retention, medical writing, biometrics and data sciences, pharmacovigilance, core laboratory, laboratories, clinics, and quality assurance. The company was founded by August James Troendle in 1992 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, OH.