Critical Survey: Phreesia (NYSE:PHR) versus MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)

Phreesia (NYSE:PHR) and MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.4% of Phreesia shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.6% of MSCI shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.8% of Phreesia shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of MSCI shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Phreesia and MSCI’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Phreesia	$280.91 million	2.94	-$176.15 million	($2.86)	-5.23
MSCI	$2.25 billion	18.09	$870.57 million	$12.00	42.86

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

Profitability

This table compares Phreesia and MSCI’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Phreesia	-47.75%	-54.52%	-41.73%
MSCI	39.76%	-97.86%	20.64%

Volatility & Risk

Phreesia has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSCI has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Phreesia and MSCI, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Phreesia	0	2	11	0	2.85
MSCI	2	4	7	0	2.38

Phreesia presently has a consensus target price of $37.15, indicating a potential upside of 148.52%. MSCI has a consensus target price of $563.86, indicating a potential upside of 9.64%. Given Phreesia’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Phreesia is more favorable than MSCI.

Summary

MSCI beats Phreesia on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Phreesia

Phreesia, Inc. provides an integrated SaaS-based software and payment platform for the healthcare industry in the United States and Canada. Its Phreesia Platform offers access solutions that offers appointment scheduling system for online appointments, reminders, and referral tracking; registration solution to automate patient self-registration; revenue cycle solution, which offer insurance-verification processes, point-of-sale payments applications, post-visit payment collection, and flexible payment options; and network connect solution to deliver clinically relevant content to patients. The company deploys its platform in a range of modalities, such as Phreesia Mobile, a patients' mobile device; Phreesia Dashboard, a web-based dashboard for healthcare services clients; PhreesiaPads, a self-service intake tablets; and Arrivals Kiosks, an on-site kiosks. It serves patients; single-specialty practices, multi-specialty groups, and health systems; and pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides investment decision support tools for the clients to manage their investment processes worldwide. It operates through four segments: Index, Analytics, ESG and Climate, and All Other Private Assets. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed product creation, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, and service that provides an integrated view of risk and return, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, and counterparty risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data from various sources, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG factors impact the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other Private Assets segment includes real estate market and transaction data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights for funds, investors, and managers; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. It serves asset owners and managers, financial intermediaries, wealth managers, real estate professionals, and corporates. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.