Head-To-Head Review: Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) vs. AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE:AMN)

AMN Healthcare Services (NYSE:AMN) and Charles River Laboratories International (NYSE:CRL) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

AMN Healthcare Services has a beta of 0.22, indicating that its stock price is 78% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Charles River Laboratories International has a beta of 1.63, indicating that its stock price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

99.2% of AMN Healthcare Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.9% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of AMN Healthcare Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Charles River Laboratories International shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares AMN Healthcare Services and Charles River Laboratories International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AMN Healthcare Services	-10.14%	10.89%	3.18%
Charles River Laboratories International	-2.07%	15.78%	7.02%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for AMN Healthcare Services and Charles River Laboratories International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AMN Healthcare Services	2	2	5	0	2.33
Charles River Laboratories International	1	4	10	0	2.60

AMN Healthcare Services currently has a consensus price target of $22.36, indicating a potential upside of 37.26%. Charles River Laboratories International has a consensus price target of $209.46, indicating a potential upside of 32.22%. Given AMN Healthcare Services’ higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe AMN Healthcare Services is more favorable than Charles River Laboratories International.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares AMN Healthcare Services and Charles River Laboratories International”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AMN Healthcare Services	$2.98 billion	0.21	-$146.98 million	($7.19)	-2.27
Charles River Laboratories International	$4.05 billion	1.93	$22.20 million	($1.56)	-101.55

Charles River Laboratories International has higher revenue and earnings than AMN Healthcare Services. Charles River Laboratories International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AMN Healthcare Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Charles River Laboratories International beats AMN Healthcare Services on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AMN Healthcare Services

AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. provides healthcare workforce solutions and staffing services to healthcare facilities in the United States. It operates through three segments: Nurse and Allied Solutions, Physician and Leadership Solutions, and Technology and Workforce Solutions. The Nurse and Allied Solutions segment offers travel nurse staffing, labor disruption staffing, local staffing, international nurse and allied permanent placement, and allied staffing solutions. The Physician and Leadership Solutions segment provides locum tenens staffing, healthcare interim leadership staffing, executive search, and physician permanent placement solutions. The Technology and Workforce Solutions segment offers language services, vendor management systems, workforce optimization, and outsourced solutions. The company also provides allied health professionals, such as physical therapists, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, medical and radiology technologists, lab technicians, speech pathologists, rehabilitation assistants, and pharmacists. It offers its services under the brands, including AMN Healthcare, Nursefinders, HealthSource Global Staffing, O'Grady Peyton International, Connetics, Medical Search International, DRW Healthcare Staffing, and B.E. Smith. AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

About Charles River Laboratories International

Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. provides drug discovery, non-clinical development, and safety testing services in the United States, Europe, Canada, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Research Models and Services (RMS), Discovery and Safety Assessment (DSA), and Manufacturing Solutions (Manufacturing). The RMS segment produces and sells rodents, and purpose-bred rats and mice for use by researchers. This segment also provides a range of services to assist its clients in supporting the use of research models in research and screening pre-clinical drug candidates, including research models, genetically engineered models and services, insourcing solutions, and research animal diagnostic services. The DSA segment offers early and in vivo discovery services for the identification and validation of novel targets, chemical compounds, and antibodies through delivery of preclinical drug and therapeutic candidates ready for safety assessment; and safety assessment services, such as toxicology, pathology, safety pharmacology, bioanalysis, drug metabolism, and pharmacokinetics services. The Manufacturing segment provides in vitro methods for conventional and rapid quality control testing of sterile and non-sterile pharmaceuticals and consumer products. This segment also offers specialized testing of biologics that are outsourced by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. It also provides contract vivarium operation services to biopharmaceutical clients. The company was founded in 1947 and is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts.