ICU Medical (ICUI) Competitors

ICU Medical (NASDAQ:ICUI) and Merit Medical Systems (NASDAQ:MMSI) are both mid-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, profitability, dividends and risk.

Do analysts prefer ICUI or MMSI?

ICU Medical presently has a consensus price target of $177.25, suggesting a potential upside of 6.66%. Merit Medical Systems has a consensus price target of $105.09, suggesting a potential downside of 0.41%. Given ICU Medical's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ICU Medical is more favorable than Merit Medical Systems.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ICU Medical	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
Merit Medical Systems	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of ICUI or MMSI?

96.1% of ICU Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.7% of Merit Medical Systems shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.7% of ICU Medical shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Merit Medical Systems shares are owned 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ICUI or MMSI?

Merit Medical Systems received 42 more outperform votes than ICU Medical when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.33% of users gave Merit Medical Systems an outperform vote while only 64.37% of users gave ICU Medical an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
ICU Medical	Outperform Votes 392 64.37%	Underperform Votes 217 35.63%
Merit Medical Systems	Outperform Votes 434 69.33%	Underperform Votes 192 30.67%

Which has more volatility and risk, ICUI or MMSI?

ICU Medical has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Merit Medical Systems has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, ICUI or MMSI?

Merit Medical Systems has lower revenue, but higher earnings than ICU Medical. ICU Medical is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Merit Medical Systems, 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
ICU Medical	$2.34B	1.74	-$29.66M	-$4.57	-36.37
Merit Medical Systems	$1.26B	4.89	$94.41M	$2.04	51.73

Is ICUI or MMSI more profitable?

Merit Medical Systems has a net margin of 9.05% compared to ICU Medical's net margin of -4.74%. Merit Medical Systems' return on equity of 15.61% beat ICU Medical's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ICU Medical	-4.74%	5.05%	2.42%
Merit Medical Systems	9.05%	15.61%	8.38%

Does the media favor ICUI or MMSI?

In the previous week, Merit Medical Systems had 2 more articles in the media than ICU Medical. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for Merit Medical Systems and 10 mentions for ICU Medical. Merit Medical Systems' average media sentiment score of 1.50 beat ICU Medical's score of 1.19 indicating that Merit Medical Systems is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
ICU Medical	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Merit Medical Systems	5 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Merit Medical Systems beats ICU Medical on 16 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.