Contrasting Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) & Certara (NASDAQ:CERT)

Certara (NASDAQ:CERT) and Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) are both medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Certara and Oracle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Certara	-17.02%	4.08%	2.79%
Oracle	19.76%	223.01%	9.20%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

74.0% of Certara shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.4% of Oracle shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of Certara shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 42.8% of Oracle shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Certara and Oracle’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Certara	$354.34 million	6.29	-$55.36 million	($0.39)	-35.51
Oracle	$52.96 billion	7.35	$10.47 billion	$3.71	38.06

Oracle has higher revenue and earnings than Certara. Certara is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Oracle, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Certara has a beta of 1.58, indicating that its stock price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Oracle has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Certara and Oracle, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Certara	0	7	4	0	2.36
Oracle	0	13	17	0	2.57

Certara presently has a consensus target price of $19.81, suggesting a potential upside of 43.05%. Oracle has a consensus target price of $145.83, suggesting a potential upside of 3.28%. Given Certara’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Certara is more favorable than Oracle.

Summary

Oracle beats Certara on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Certara

Certara, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides software products and technology-enabled services to customers for biosimulation in drug discovery, preclinical and clinical research, regulatory submissions, and market access in the United States and internationally. It offers solutions for model-informed drug development, as well as biosimulation solution used to predict both pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The company provides Simcyp Simulator, a mechanistic biosimulation platform mechanistic biosimulation investigational new drug and translational stages; Simcyp Biopharmaceutics, used to identify and refine drug formulations; and Simcyp Secondary Intelligence which integrates toxicology with quantitative analysis of networks of molecular and functional biological changes to identify drug toxicity and adverse drug reactions. In addition, it offers Phoenix WinNonlin, a platform for non-compartmental analysis, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic, and toxicokinetic; phoenix hosted, that provides a secured and validated certara amazon web services workspace; Phoenix NLME, a population modeling and simulation software for nonlinear mixed effects models; and pirana modeling workbench. Further, the company provides pinnacle 21, a cloud-based platform for clinical data automation, standardization, and validation; Pinnacle 21 Data Exchange, used to define data standards and specifications; and Metadata Repository, to enable study design using controlled and standardized data. It serves life sciences companies, biopharmaceutical companies, research organizations, academic institutions, and global regulators, as well as animal health, crop science, bio science, medical devices, and public sector industries. Certara Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey.

About Oracle

Oracle Corporation offers products and services that address enterprise information technology environments worldwide. Its Oracle cloud software as a service offering include various cloud software applications, including Oracle Fusion cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP), Oracle Fusion cloud enterprise performance management, Oracle Fusion cloud supply chain and manufacturing management, Oracle Fusion cloud human capital management, Oracle Cerner healthcare, Oracle Advertising, and NetSuite applications suite, as well as Oracle Fusion Sales, Service, and Marketing. The company also offers cloud-based industry solutions for various industries; Oracle application licenses; and Oracle license support services. In addition, it provides cloud and license business' infrastructure technologies, such as the Oracle Database and MySQL Database; Java, a software development language; and middleware, including development tools and others. The company's cloud and license business' infrastructure technologies also comprise cloud-based compute, storage, and networking capabilities; and Oracle autonomous database, MySQL HeatWave, Internet-of-Things, digital assistant, and blockchain. Further, it provides hardware products and other hardware-related software offerings, including Oracle engineered systems, enterprise servers, storage solutions, industry-specific hardware, virtualization software, operating systems, management software, and related hardware services; and consulting and customer services. The company markets and sells its cloud, license, hardware, support, and services offerings directly to businesses in various industries, government agencies, and educational institutions, as well as through indirect channels. The company has a collaboration with Amdocs Limited to empower customers on their journey towards cloud and digital adoption. Oracle Corporation was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.