Reviewing Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH) and HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA)

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) and Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH) are both large-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.5% of Molina Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Molina Healthcare shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.11, suggesting that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Molina Healthcare has a beta of 0.74, suggesting that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for HCA Healthcare and Molina Healthcare, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCA Healthcare	1	7	16	0	2.62
Molina Healthcare	2	13	3	0	2.06

HCA Healthcare presently has a consensus target price of $475.70, suggesting a potential upside of 0.58%. Molina Healthcare has a consensus target price of $213.88, suggesting a potential upside of 4.39%. Given Molina Healthcare’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Molina Healthcare is more favorable than HCA Healthcare.

Profitability

This table compares HCA Healthcare and Molina Healthcare’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCA Healthcare	8.61%	-198.52%	10.81%
Molina Healthcare	-0.11%	2.50%	0.65%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares HCA Healthcare and Molina Healthcare”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HCA Healthcare	$75.60 billion	1.31	$6.78 billion	$30.18	15.67
Molina Healthcare	$45.43 billion	0.24	$472.00 million	($0.96)	-213.42

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

Summary

HCA Healthcare beats Molina Healthcare on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HCA Healthcare

HCA Healthcare, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy. The company also operates outpatient health care facilities consisting of freestanding ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices, and various other facilities. In addition, it operates behavioral hospitals, which provide therapeutic programs comprising child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care, adolescent and adult alcohol, drug abuse treatment, and counseling services. The company was formerly known as HCA Holdings, Inc. HCA Healthcare, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Molina Healthcare

Molina Healthcare, Inc. provides managed healthcare services to low-income families and individuals under the Medicaid and Medicare programs and through the state insurance marketplaces. It operates in four segments: Medicaid, Medicare, Marketplace, and Other. The company served in across 19 states. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.