Harvard Bioscience (HBIO) Competitors

Harvard Bioscience (NASDAQ:HBIO) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) are both life sciences tools & services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, media sentiment, valuation and earnings.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in HBIO or TMO?

80.9% of Harvard Bioscience shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.2% of Thermo Fisher Scientific shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of Harvard Bioscience shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Thermo Fisher Scientific shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, HBIO or TMO?

Harvard Bioscience has a beta of 1.54, meaning that its stock price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Thermo Fisher Scientific has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor HBIO or TMO?

In the previous week, Thermo Fisher Scientific had 51 more articles in the media than Harvard Bioscience. MarketBeat recorded 61 mentions for Thermo Fisher Scientific and 10 mentions for Harvard Bioscience. Thermo Fisher Scientific's average media sentiment score of 1.27 beat Harvard Bioscience's score of -0.05 indicating that Thermo Fisher Scientific is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Harvard Bioscience	1 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Thermo Fisher Scientific	42 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend HBIO or TMO?

Harvard Bioscience presently has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 587.92%. Thermo Fisher Scientific has a consensus target price of $593.00, suggesting a potential upside of 28.15%. Given Harvard Bioscience's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Harvard Bioscience is more favorable than Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Harvard Bioscience	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Thermo Fisher Scientific	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	15 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71

Which has higher valuation & earnings, HBIO or TMO?

Thermo Fisher Scientific has higher revenue and earnings than Harvard Bioscience. Harvard Bioscience is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Thermo Fisher Scientific, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Harvard Bioscience	$94.14M	0.20	-$12.40M	-$1.32	-0.33
Thermo Fisher Scientific	$42.88B	4.07	$6.34B	$17.29	26.76

Is HBIO or TMO more profitable?

Thermo Fisher Scientific has a net margin of 15.24% compared to Harvard Bioscience's net margin of -63.51%. Thermo Fisher Scientific's return on equity of 16.82% beat Harvard Bioscience's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Harvard Bioscience	-63.51%	-4.96%	-2.24%
Thermo Fisher Scientific	15.24%	16.82%	8.38%

Summary

Thermo Fisher Scientific beats Harvard Bioscience on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.