Critical Analysis: Sienna Senior Living (OTCMKTS:LWSCF) and Life Healthcare Group (OTCMKTS:LTGHY)

Sienna Senior Living (OTCMKTS:LWSCF) and Life Healthcare Group (OTCMKTS:LTGHY) are both medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Sienna Senior Living pays an annual dividend of $0.90 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.4%. Life Healthcare Group pays an annual dividend of $1.89 per share and has a dividend yield of 51.8%. Sienna Senior Living pays out -141.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Life Healthcare Group pays out 17.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

11.9% of Sienna Senior Living shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Sienna Senior Living and Life Healthcare Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sienna Senior Living	0	0	1	0	3.00
Life Healthcare Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Sienna Senior Living presently has a consensus price target of $15.50, suggesting a potential upside of 28.10%. Given Sienna Senior Living’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Sienna Senior Living is more favorable than Life Healthcare Group.

Profitability

This table compares Sienna Senior Living and Life Healthcare Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sienna Senior Living	N/A	N/A	N/A
Life Healthcare Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sienna Senior Living and Life Healthcare Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sienna Senior Living	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.64)	-18.96
Life Healthcare Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$10.67	0.34

Sienna Senior Living is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Life Healthcare Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Sienna Senior Living beats Life Healthcare Group on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sienna Senior Living

Sienna Senior Living Inc. provides senior living and long-term care (LTC) services in Canada. The company operates through Retirement and LTC segments. It offers independent supportive and assisted living, memory care, and long-term care services; and management services to senior living residences. The company was formerly known as Leisureworld Senior Care Corporation and changed its name to Sienna Senior Living Inc. in May 2015. Sienna Senior Living Inc. was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Markham, Canada.

About Life Healthcare Group

Life Healthcare Group Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates private hospitals in South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom, rest of Europe, and Internationally. It operates through two segments, Hospitals and Complementary Services; and Healthcare Services. The company provides range of acute hospitals and complementary services; Life Esidimeni services, such as chronic mental healthcare, frail care rehabilitation, step-down care, correctional services, and primary healthcare and substance abuse recovery programs; and life employee health solutions, including on-site occupational and primary healthcare services and employee wellness programs. It also offers services in the areas of diagnostics, mental health, acute rehabilitation, renal dialysis, oncology, cardiology, neurology, orthopedic, pediatric, dermatology, ophthalmology, gynecology, and obstetric. In addition, the company provides diagnostic imaging services; magnetic resonance imaging and computerized tomography scanners; develops, manufactures, and distributes radiopharmaceuticals for use in positron emission tomography-computerized tomography (PET-CT) diagnostics. The company was formerly known as Afrox Healthcare Limited and changed its name to Life Healthcare Group Holdings Limited in January 2005. Life Healthcare Group Holdings Limited was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.