Alcon (ALC) Competitors

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

Is HCA or ALC more profitable?

Alcon has a net margin of 11.89% compared to HCA Healthcare's net margin of 8.16%. HCA Healthcare's return on equity of 586.47% beat Alcon's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCA Healthcare	8.16%	586.47%	9.93%
Alcon	11.89%	7.17%	5.03%

Do analysts recommend HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare currently has a consensus price target of $385.67, indicating a potential upside of 22.02%. Alcon has a consensus price target of $102.38, indicating a potential upside of 13.37%. Given HCA Healthcare's higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe HCA Healthcare is more favorable than Alcon.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCA Healthcare	1 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83
Alcon	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86

Which has more volatility & risk, HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare has a beta of 1.64, indicating that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alcon has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to HCA or ALC?

In the previous week, HCA Healthcare had 25 more articles in the media than Alcon. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for HCA Healthcare and 3 mentions for Alcon. HCA Healthcare's average media sentiment score of 0.56 beat Alcon's score of -0.08 indicating that HCA Healthcare is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
HCA Healthcare	16 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Alcon	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Which has better valuation & earnings, HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare has higher revenue and earnings than Alcon. HCA Healthcare 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
HCA Healthcare	$70.60B	1.11	$5.76B	$21.97	14.39
Alcon	$9.46B	4.71	$974M	$2.34	38.60

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of HCA or ALC?

62.7% of HCA Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.9% of Alcon shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of HCA Healthcare shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Alcon shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in HCA or ALC?

HCA Healthcare received 1036 more outperform votes than Alcon when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 77.39% of users gave HCA Healthcare an outperform vote while only 63.23% of users gave Alcon an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
HCA Healthcare	Outperform Votes 1232 77.39%	Underperform Votes 360 22.61%
Alcon	Outperform Votes 196 63.23%	Underperform Votes 114 36.77%

Summary

HCA Healthcare beats Alcon on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.