Encompass Health (EHC) Competitors

Encompass Health (NYSE:EHC) and Alcon (NYSE:ALC) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and profitability.

Do analysts prefer EHC or ALC?

Encompass Health presently has a consensus target price of $120.86, indicating a potential downside of 0.07%. Alcon has a consensus target price of $106.13, indicating a potential upside of 18.20%. Given Alcon's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Alcon is more favorable than Encompass Health.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Encompass Health	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	8 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.11
Alcon	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.77

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, EHC or ALC?

Alcon has higher revenue and earnings than Encompass Health. Encompass Health is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Alcon, 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
Encompass Health	$5.51B	2.21	$455.70M	$4.84	24.99
Alcon	$9.93B	4.46	$974M	$2.25	39.90

Is EHC or ALC more profitable?

Alcon has a net margin of 11.89% compared to Encompass Health's net margin of 8.48%. Encompass Health's return on equity of 17.56% beat Alcon's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Encompass Health	8.48%	17.56%	7.06%
Alcon	11.89%	7.17%	5.03%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in EHC or ALC?

97.3% of Encompass Health shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.9% of Alcon shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Encompass Health shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Alcon shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer EHC or ALC?

In the previous week, Encompass Health had 13 more articles in the media than Alcon. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Encompass Health and 15 mentions for Alcon. Encompass Health's average media sentiment score of 1.38 beat Alcon's score of -0.02 indicating that Encompass Health is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Encompass Health	19 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Alcon	1 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in EHC or ALC?

Encompass Health received 313 more outperform votes than Alcon when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 72.65% of users gave Encompass Health an outperform vote while only 63.86% of users gave Alcon an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Encompass Health	Outperform Votes 518 72.65%	Underperform Votes 195 27.35%
Alcon	Outperform Votes 205 63.86%	Underperform Votes 116 36.14%

Which has more risk and volatility, EHC or ALC?

Encompass Health has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its stock price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alcon has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is EHC or ALC a better dividend stock?

Encompass Health pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Alcon pays an annual dividend of $0.26 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. Encompass Health pays out 14.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Alcon pays out 11.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Encompass Health has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years and Alcon has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Summary

Encompass Health beats Alcon on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.