HealthEquity (HQY) Competitors

IQVIA (NYSE:IQV) and HealthEquity (NASDAQ:HQY) are both medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, risk, media sentiment, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and valuation.

Do analysts prefer IQV or HQY?

IQVIA currently has a consensus target price of $237.62, suggesting a potential upside of 55.58%. HealthEquity has a consensus target price of $111.75, suggesting a potential upside of 25.09%. Given IQVIA's higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe IQVIA is more favorable than HealthEquity.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IQVIA	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	16 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75
HealthEquity	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community favor IQV or HQY?

IQVIA received 143 more outperform votes than HealthEquity when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 70.22% of users gave HealthEquity an outperform vote while only 68.16% of users gave IQVIA an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
IQVIA	Outperform Votes 683 68.16%	Underperform Votes 319 31.84%
HealthEquity	Outperform Votes 540 70.22%	Underperform Votes 229 29.78%

Is IQV or HQY more profitable?

IQVIA has a net margin of 8.91% compared to HealthEquity's net margin of 8.41%. IQVIA's return on equity of 28.81% beat HealthEquity's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IQVIA	8.91%	28.81%	7.02%
HealthEquity	8.41%	9.70%	6.08%

Does the media refer more to IQV or HQY?

In the previous week, IQVIA had 13 more articles in the media than HealthEquity. MarketBeat recorded 33 mentions for IQVIA and 20 mentions for HealthEquity. HealthEquity's average media sentiment score of 0.80 beat IQVIA's score of 0.71 indicating that HealthEquity is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
IQVIA	16 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
HealthEquity	10 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in IQV or HQY?

89.6% of IQVIA shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.6% of HealthEquity shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of IQVIA shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of HealthEquity shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, IQV or HQY?

IQVIA has higher revenue and earnings than HealthEquity. IQVIA is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HealthEquity, 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
IQVIA	$15.41B	1.75	$1.37B	$7.50	20.36
HealthEquity	$1.20B	6.44	$55.71M	$1.09	81.96

Which has more volatility & risk, IQV or HQY?

IQVIA has a beta of 1.46, suggesting that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HealthEquity has a beta of 0.49, suggesting that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

IQVIA beats HealthEquity on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.