Financial Survey: LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) & Varex Imaging (NASDAQ:VREX)

LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT) and Varex Imaging (NASDAQ:VREX) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.6% of LeMaitre Vascular shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of LeMaitre Vascular shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.6% of Varex Imaging shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

LeMaitre Vascular has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Varex Imaging has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for LeMaitre Vascular and Varex Imaging, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LeMaitre Vascular	0	5	3	0	2.38
Varex Imaging	0	7	0	0	2.00

LeMaitre Vascular presently has a consensus price target of $108.25, indicating a potential upside of 36.52%. Varex Imaging has a consensus price target of $16.88, indicating a potential downside of 8.24%. Given LeMaitre Vascular’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe LeMaitre Vascular is more favorable than Varex Imaging.

Profitability

This table compares LeMaitre Vascular and Varex Imaging’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LeMaitre Vascular	23.51%	15.33%	9.97%
Varex Imaging	2.55%	9.19%	4.13%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares LeMaitre Vascular and Varex Imaging”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LeMaitre Vascular	$249.60 million	7.27	$57.73 million	$2.75	28.83
Varex Imaging	$844.60 million	0.92	-$70.30 million	$0.52	35.37

LeMaitre Vascular has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Varex Imaging. LeMaitre Vascular is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Varex Imaging, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

LeMaitre Vascular beats Varex Imaging on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LeMaitre Vascular

LeMaitre Vascular develops, manufactures and markets medical devices used primarily in the treatment of vascular disease. Its products support procedures performed by vascular surgeons and include vascular grafts, embolectomy catheters, carotid shunts, valvulotomes and other instruments used in vascular surgery. Founded in 1983 by vascular surgeon George LeMaitre, the company is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. Its products are sold to hospitals and medical professionals around the world through a combination of direct sales and distributors.

About Varex Imaging

Varex Imaging Corporation designs and manufactures components used in X-ray imaging systems. Its products include X-ray tubes, digital detectors, image-processing solutions and related software and services for medical and industrial applications. In healthcare, Varex’s components are used in systems for applications such as radiography, computed tomography, mammography and oncology. Its industrial products support inspection and analysis in areas including security screening and nondestructive testing.