The Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) and Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN) share prices are soaring today, up 7% and 11% respectively:
Medibank isn't far from its 52-week high of $3.05 per share, while Nanosonics has been sold off heavily by the market over the past year, some 33% below its peak of $3.60.
Is either company a buy?
You can't compare apples with oranges of course, but my instinct is to avoid or hold Medibank, and consider buying Nanosonics.
I'm a young, growth-oriented investor so Medibank isn't a good fit for me. The company is one of the largest players in its market (minimal room to grow) and it has big problems with high levels of customer complaints, high prices, and persistent erosion of its market share by competitors. If anything I think the company is overpriced, or at least fairly priced.
Nanosonics however could be an opportunity, recording record revenues and a big shift to profitability this year, even as its sales scale up and the company's product increasingly becomes a standard in the industry. The company commands a monster valuation, but with ongoing expansion in the USA and the UK as well as further new sales in its home market of Australia, Nanosonics looks like an attractive high-risk, high-reward investment today.
