Critical Contrast: BrainsWay (NASDAQ:BWAY) & Atrion (NASDAQ:ATRI)

Atrion (NASDAQ:ATRI) and BrainsWay (NASDAQ:BWAY) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Atrion and BrainsWay, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atrion	0	0	0	0	N/A
BrainsWay	0	1	2	0	2.67

BrainsWay has a consensus price target of $9.67, suggesting a potential upside of 78.35%. Given BrainsWay’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe BrainsWay is more favorable than Atrion.

Volatility and Risk

Atrion has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BrainsWay has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

66.2% of Atrion shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.1% of BrainsWay shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.8% of Atrion shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.0% of BrainsWay shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Atrion and BrainsWay’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atrion	$169.33 million	5.16	$19.41 million	$10.64	46.62
BrainsWay	$31.78 million	2.84	-$4.20 million	($0.13)	-41.69

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

Profitability

This table compares Atrion and BrainsWay’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atrion	10.60%	7.75%	7.12%
BrainsWay	-4.83%	-3.98%	-2.68%

Summary

Atrion beats BrainsWay on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atrion

Atrion Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, and sells products for fluid delivery, cardiovascular, and ophthalmic applications in the United States, Canada, Europe, and internationally. The company's fluid delivery products include valves that fill, hold, and release controlled amounts of fluids or gasses for use in various intubation, intravenous, catheter, and other applications in the anesthesia and oncology fields, as well as promote infection control in hospital and home healthcare environments. Its cardiovascular products comprise Myocardial Protection System that delivers fluids and medications, and mixes critical drugs, as well as controls temperature, pressure, and other variables; cardiac surgery vacuum relief valves; silicone vessel loops for retracting and occluding vessels; and inflation devices for balloon catheter dilation, stent deployment, and fluid dispensing, as well as products for use in heart bypass surgery. The company's ophthalmic products consist of a line of balloon catheters, which are used for the treatment of nasolacrimal duct obstruction in children and adults. It manufactures products for safe needle and scalpel blade containment; inflation systems and valves used in marine and aviation safety products; components used in inflatable survival products and structures; and one-way and two-way pressure relief valves that protect sensitive electronics and other products during transport in other medical and non-medical applications. The company sells its products to physicians, hospitals, clinics, and other treatment centers; and other equipment manufacturers through direct sales force, independent sales representatives, and distributors. Atrion Corporation was founded in 1944 and is headquartered in Allen, Texas.

About BrainsWay

BrainsWay Ltd. develops and sells noninvasive neurostimulation treatments for mental health disorders in the United States and internationally. It offers Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation platform technology for the treatment of major depressive disorders, anxious depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, smoking addiction, bipolar disorders, post traumatic stress disorders, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, autism, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, post stroke rehabilitation, and Parkinson's diseases. The company serves doctors, hospitals, and medical centers in the field of psychiatry. BrainsWay Ltd. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel.