Critical Review: SeaStar Medical (ICU) and Its Peers

SeaStar Medical (NASDAQ:ICU) is one of 230 publicly-traded companies in the “Surgical & medical instruments” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare SeaStar Medical to related companies based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares SeaStar Medical and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SeaStar Medical	N/A	N/A	-741.57%
SeaStar Medical Competitors	-734.79%	-137.72%	-27.15%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for SeaStar Medical and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SeaStar Medical	0	0	0	0	N/A
SeaStar Medical Competitors	1591	4301	8416	222	2.50

As a group, “Surgical & medical instruments” companies have a potential upside of 30.11%. Given SeaStar Medical’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe SeaStar Medical has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares SeaStar Medical and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
SeaStar Medical	N/A	-$26.23 million	-0.40
SeaStar Medical Competitors	$1.04 billion	$3.79 million	-7.68

SeaStar Medical’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than SeaStar Medical. SeaStar Medical is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

SeaStar Medical has a beta of -1.18, suggesting that its stock price is 218% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SeaStar Medical’s competitors have a beta of 1.10, suggesting that their average stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.7% of SeaStar Medical shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.2% of shares of all “Surgical & medical instruments” companies are owned by institutional investors. 4.5% of SeaStar Medical shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.4% of shares of all “Surgical & medical instruments” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

SeaStar Medical competitors beat SeaStar Medical on 7 of the 10 factors compared.

About SeaStar Medical

SeaStar Medical Holding Corporation, a medical device company, develops a platform therapy to reduce the consequences of hyperinflammation on vital organs in the United States. The company offers inflammatory response to fend off infections and repair damaged tissue in the body. It is also developing products in various therapeutic areas, including pediatric and adult acute kidney injury on CRRT; cardiorenal syndrome in congestive heart failure; myocardial stunning in end stage renal disease; and hepatorenal syndrome. SeaStar Medical Holding Corporation is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.