Critical Survey: ShockWave Medical (NASDAQ:SWAV) versus Beauty Health (NASDAQ:SKIN)

Beauty Health (NASDAQ:SKIN – Get Rating) and ShockWave Medical (NASDAQ:SWAV – Get Rating) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Beauty Health has a beta of 1.4, meaning that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ShockWave Medical has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

72.0% of Beauty Health shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.1% of ShockWave Medical shares are held by institutional investors. 34.3% of Beauty Health shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.3% of ShockWave Medical 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Beauty Health and ShockWave Medical, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Beauty Health	0	1	8	0	2.89
ShockWave Medical	0	1	5	0	2.83

Beauty Health currently has a consensus target price of $24.75, indicating a potential upside of 68.71%. ShockWave Medical has a consensus target price of $209.50, indicating a potential downside of 6.11%. Given Beauty Health’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Beauty Health is more favorable than ShockWave Medical.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Beauty Health and ShockWave Medical’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Beauty Health	$260.09 million	8.44	-$375.11 million	($3.40)	-4.31
ShockWave Medical	$237.15 million	33.68	-$9.14 million	$0.77	289.79

ShockWave Medical has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Beauty Health. Beauty Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ShockWave Medical, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Beauty Health and ShockWave Medical’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Beauty Health	-117.84%	-0.01%	N/A
ShockWave Medical	9.70%	12.36%	8.96%

Summary

ShockWave Medical beats Beauty Health on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Beauty Health

(Get Rating)

The Beauty Health Company designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells aesthetic technologies and products worldwide. The company's flagship product includes HydraFacial that enhance the skin to cleanse, peel, exfoliate, extract, infuse, and hydrate the skin with proprietary solutions and serums. Its products also comprise Syndeo, a HydraFacial Delivery System designed to elevate every part of the treatment and connects providers to the consumer's preferences to create a more personalized experience; HydraFacial Nation App, an app that allows consumers to learn about their skin health, discover treatment options, and track their treatments over time; and Keravive, a treatment for scalp health. The company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Long Beach, California.

About ShockWave Medical

(Get Rating)

ShockWave Medical, Inc., a medical device company, engages in developing and commercializing intravascular lithotripsy technology for the treatment of calcified plaque in patients with peripheral vascular, coronary vascular, and heart valve diseases worldwide. The company offers M5 catheters for treating above-the-knee peripheral artery disease (PAD); C2 catheters for treating coronary artery disease; and S4 catheters for treating below-the-knee PAD. It serves interventional cardiologists, vascular surgeons, and interventional radiologists through sales representatives and sales managers, and distributors. The company was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

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