Financial Contrast: BG Medicine (OTCMKTS:BGMD) versus Avantor (NYSE:AVTR)

Avantor (NYSE:AVTR) and BG Medicine (OTCMKTS:BGMD) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

Avantor has a beta of 0.93, indicating that its stock price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BG Medicine has a beta of 1.47, indicating that its stock price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Avantor and BG Medicine, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Avantor	1	12	4	0	2.18
BG Medicine	0	0	0	0	0.00

Avantor currently has a consensus target price of $13.97, indicating a potential upside of 21.93%. Given Avantor’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Avantor is more favorable than BG Medicine.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Avantor and BG Medicine”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Avantor	$6.58 billion	1.19	$711.50 million	($0.13)	-88.12
BG Medicine	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Avantor has higher revenue and earnings than BG Medicine.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.1% of Avantor shares are held by institutional investors. 1.2% of Avantor shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of BG Medicine shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Avantor and BG Medicine’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Avantor	-1.25%	10.91%	5.34%
BG Medicine	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Avantor beats BG Medicine on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Avantor

Avantor, Inc. engages in the provision of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education and government, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company offers materials and consumables, such as purity chemicals and reagents, lab products and supplies, formulated silicone materials, customized excipients, customized single-use assemblies, process chromatography resins and columns, analytical sample prep kits, education and microbiology products, clinical trial kits, peristaltic pumps, and fluid handling tips. It also provides equipment and instrumentation products, including filtration systems, virus inactivation systems, incubators, analytical instruments, evaporators, ultra-low-temperature freezers, biological safety cabinets, and critical environment supplies. In addition, the company offers services and specialty procurements comprising onsite lab and production, clinical, equipment, procurement and sourcing, and biopharmaceutical material scale-up and development services. Further, it provides scientific research support services, such as DNA extraction, bioreactor servicing, clinical and biorepository, and compound management services. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania.

About BG Medicine

BG Medicine, Inc. engages in the development and commercialization of diagnostic products used to guide the patients suffering from heart failure and related disorders in the United States. The company offers BGM Galectin-3 Test, an in vitro diagnostic device that measures galectin-3 in serum or plasma by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay on a microtiter plate platform; and CardioSCORE Test, a multi-analyte biomarker-based blood test used for the assessment of near-term risk of atherothrombotic cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and ischemic stroke. It has license, development, and commercialization agreements with Abbott Laboratories, bioMérieux SA, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., and Alere Inc. for the automated instrument versions of galectin-3 test; and a strategic collaboration with Abbott Laboratories to develop and commercialize galectin-3 assay kits, and related control kits and calibrators. The company was formerly known as Beyond Genomics, Inc. and changed its name to BG Medicine, Inc. in October 2004. BG Medicine, Inc. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.