Analyzing Ardent Health Partners (NYSE:ARDT) & HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA)

HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA) and Ardent Health Partners (NYSE:ARDT) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for HCA Healthcare and Ardent Health Partners, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCA Healthcare	1	4	11	2	2.78
Ardent Health Partners	0	2	8	2	3.00

HCA Healthcare currently has a consensus price target of $387.13, indicating a potential upside of 23.32%. Ardent Health Partners has a consensus price target of $21.82, indicating a potential upside of 30.73%. Given Ardent Health Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Ardent Health Partners is more favorable than HCA Healthcare.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares HCA Healthcare and Ardent Health Partners”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HCA Healthcare	$64.97 billion	1.22	$5.24 billion	$22.27	14.10
Ardent Health Partners	$5.41 billion	0.44	$53.90 million	N/A	N/A

HCA Healthcare has higher revenue and earnings than Ardent Health Partners.

Profitability

This table compares HCA Healthcare and Ardent Health Partners’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCA Healthcare	8.52%	520.98%	10.09%
Ardent Health Partners	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of HCA Healthcare shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

HCA Healthcare beats Ardent Health Partners on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HCA Healthcare

HCA Healthcare, Inc., through its subsidiaries, owns and operates hospitals and related healthcare entities in the United States. It operates general and acute care hospitals that offers medical and surgical services, including inpatient care, intensive care, cardiac care, diagnostic, and emergency services; and outpatient services, such as outpatient surgery, laboratory, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiology, and physical therapy. The company also operates outpatient health care facilities consisting of freestanding ambulatory surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, urgent care facilities, walk-in clinics, diagnostic and imaging centers, rehabilitation and physical therapy centers, radiation and oncology therapy centers, physician practices, and various other facilities. In addition, it operates behavioral hospitals, which provide therapeutic programs comprising child, adolescent and adult psychiatric care, adolescent and adult alcohol, drug abuse treatment, and counseling services. The company was formerly known as HCA Holdings, Inc. HCA Healthcare, Inc. was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Ardent Health Partners

Ardent Health Partners, Inc. owns and operates a network of hospitals and clinics that provides a range of healthcare services in the United States. It operates acute care hospitals, including rehabilitation hospitals and surgical hospitals. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee. Ardent Health Partners, Inc. is a subsidiary of EGI-AM Investments, L.L.C.