Contrasting Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) and Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND)

Blend Labs (NYSE:BLND) and Health Catalyst (NASDAQ:HCAT) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Blend Labs and Health Catalyst”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Blend Labs	$152.12 million	5.97	-$178.69 million	($0.58)	-6.21
Health Catalyst	$299.48 million	1.71	-$118.15 million	($1.85)	-4.68

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

52.6% of Blend Labs shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.0% of Health Catalyst shares are held by institutional investors. 11.8% of Blend Labs shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of Health Catalyst shares are held by company 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 summary of current ratings for Blend Labs and Health Catalyst, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Blend Labs	0	1	5	0	2.83
Health Catalyst	0	4	8	0	2.67

Blend Labs presently has a consensus target price of $3.93, indicating a potential upside of 9.17%. Health Catalyst has a consensus target price of $11.58, indicating a potential upside of 33.76%. Given Health Catalyst’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Health Catalyst is more favorable than Blend Labs.

Profitability

This table compares Blend Labs and Health Catalyst’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Blend Labs	-77.63%	N/A	-40.93%
Health Catalyst	-28.87%	-9.38%	-4.90%

Risk & Volatility

Blend Labs has a beta of 1.15, suggesting that its stock price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Health Catalyst has a beta of 1.32, suggesting that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Health Catalyst beats Blend Labs on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Blend Labs

Blend Labs, Inc. engages in the provision of cloud-based software platform solutions for financial services firms in the United States. It operates in two segments, Blend Platform and Title365. The company's Blend Builder Platform offers a suite of products that powers digital-first consumer journeys for mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, vehicle loans, personal loans, credit cards, and deposit accounts; and offers mortgage products to facilitate the homeownership journey for consumers comprising close, income verification for mortgage, homeowners' insurance, and realty. It also offers verification components to automate confirmation tasks that are needed to underwrite a loan or approve the opening of a new deposit account; decisioning components to reduce the need for human intervention by automatically applying business rules throughout an application workflow configured by a financial services firm; workflow intelligence components to manage data collection and automate tasks throughout the loan origination process; and marketplace components to enable consumers to shop for products and services presented at the precise moment of need during an application for a loan. In addition, the company, through its subsidiary, offers title search procedures for title insurance policies, escrow, and other closing and settlement services, as well as other trustee services; and provides professional and consulting services. It serves banks, credit unions, fintechs, and non-bank mortgage lenders. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Health Catalyst

Health Catalyst, Inc. provides data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations in the United States. It operates in two segments, Technology and Professional Services. The company provides data operating system data platform which provides clients single comprehensive environment to integrate and organize data from their disparate software systems; and analytics applications, a software analytics applications build for data platform to analyze clients face across clinical and quality, population health, and financial and operational use cases. It offers services expertise solutions comprising data and analytics, domain expertise and education, tech-enabled managed, and implementation services; and opportunity analysis and prioritization, data governance, data modeling and analysis, quality and process improvement strategy, cost accounting, data abstraction, and population health strategies. The company was formerly known as HQC Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Health Catalyst, Inc. in March 2017. Health Catalyst, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in South Jordan, Utah.