Reviewing Alpha Teknova (NASDAQ:TKNO) and Lucira Health (NASDAQ:LHDXQ)

Alpha Teknova (NASDAQ:TKNO – Get Rating) and Lucira Health (NASDAQ:LHDXQ – Get Rating) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Alpha Teknova has a beta of 0.05, suggesting that its share price is 95% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lucira Health has a beta of 3.24, suggesting that its share price is 224% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

22.7% of Alpha Teknova shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.0% of Lucira Health shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.2% of Alpha Teknova shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 30.4% of Lucira Health shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Alpha Teknova and Lucira Health, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alpha Teknova	0	0	1	0	3.00
Lucira Health	0	0	0	0	N/A

Alpha Teknova presently has a consensus price target of $9.33, indicating a potential upside of 336.14%. Given Alpha Teknova’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Alpha Teknova is more favorable than Lucira Health.

Profitability

This table compares Alpha Teknova and Lucira Health’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alpha Teknova	-128.92%	-31.25%	-21.50%
Lucira Health	-67.54%	-13.55%	-8.47%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Alpha Teknova and Lucira Health’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alpha Teknova	$39.39 million	1.53	-$47.47 million	($1.80)	-1.19
Lucira Health	$93.06 million	0.05	-$64.83 million	($3.58)	-0.03

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

Summary

Lucira Health beats Alpha Teknova on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alpha Teknova

(Get Rating)

Alpha Teknova, Inc. provides critical reagents for life sciences market in the United States and internationally. Its reagents enable the discovery, development, and production of biopharmaceutical products, such as drug therapies, novel vaccines, and molecular diagnostics. The company offers pre-poured media plates for cell growth and cloning; liquid cell culture media and supplements for cellular expansion; and molecular biology reagents for sample manipulation, resuspension, and purification. It serves life sciences market, including pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, contract development and manufacturing organizations, in vitro diagnostic franchises, and academic and government research institutions. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Hollister, California.

About Lucira Health

(Get Rating)

Lucira Health Inc. is a medical technology company. It is focused on the development and commercialization of transformative and infectious disease test kits. Lucira Health Inc. is based in Emeryville, California.