Analyzing Harvard Bioscience (HBIO) & The Competition

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

Profitability

This table compares Harvard Bioscience and its rivals’ 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	-540.60%	-166.50%	-13.58%

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Harvard Bioscience	$86.55 million	-$56.70 million	-3.67
Harvard Bioscience Competitors	$2.28 billion	$55.88 billion	-13.70

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Harvard Bioscience and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Harvard Bioscience	1	1	1	0	2.00
Harvard Bioscience Competitors	948	3168	5486	178	2.50

Harvard Bioscience presently has a consensus price target of $6.75, indicating a potential downside of 20.45%. As a group, “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies have a potential downside of 1.96%. Given Harvard Bioscience’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Harvard Bioscience has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.9% of Harvard Bioscience shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.7% of shares of all “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 17.0% of Harvard Bioscience shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of shares of all “Life Sciences Tools & Services” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Harvard Bioscience has a beta of 1.47, meaning that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Harvard Bioscience’s rivals have a beta of 0.94, meaning that their average share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Harvard Bioscience beats its rivals on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About Harvard Bioscience

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.