CON vs NVMI: How Concentra Group Holdings and Nova Ltd. Compare (2026)

Last updated August 2026

Short answer

NVMI is the larger of the two ($12.34B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (29.92x forward earnings, beta 1.78). CON is the smaller challenger ($4.45B), cheaper on forward earnings (20.55x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.

CON vs NVMI: the tie-breaker metrics

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Metric	CON	NVMI	What it tells you
Market cap	$4.45B	$12.34B	Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove.
Forward P/E	20.55	29.92	Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up.
Trailing P/E	24.99	48.74	Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price.
Beta	0.62	1.78	Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through.
Price vs 52-week range	99% of range	41% of range	Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why.
Price / book	10.47	8.89	How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price.

Reading it: CON is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

Before you buy: how CON and NVMI affect your concentration

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. CON and NVMI share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined CON and NVMI exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

What does Concentra Group Holdings (CON) do?

Concentra Group Holdings Parent (NYSE: CON) runs the country's largest occupational health network: roughly 633 company-operated occupational health centers plus about 415 onsite clinics located inside employer workplaces, serving somewhere near 56,400 patients per business day with about 13,000 employees. The work is narrow and repetitive by design. When someone gets hurt on the job, Concentra treats the injury and manages the return-to-work process, billed to a workers' compensation payer at a rate set by a state fee schedule. When an employer hires, Concentra runs the pre-placement physical, the DOT exam, and the drug screen, billed directly to the employer. A third bucket covers Concentra Telemed, Concentra Pharmacy, and medical compliance administration. The company was carved out of Select Medical through a July 2024 IPO and a full spin-off completed on November 25, 2024, and it has since bolted on Nova Medical Centers (67 Texas centers, ~$265 million, closed March 2025) and Pivot Onsite Innovations (200-plus onsite clinics bought from Athletico for ~$55 million, closed June 2025).

Full CON guide

What does Nova Ltd. (NVMI) do?

Nova Ltd. (NASDAQ and Tel Aviv: NVMI), headquartered in Rehovot, Israel, builds process-control metrology for semiconductor manufacturing. Metrology is measurement rather than inspection: instead of hunting for defects, Nova's systems characterize the dimensions, profiles, thin-film thickness, and material composition of structures on a wafer while it is still moving through the line. The portfolio splits into a Dimensional Metrology Division built on optical techniques (integrated and standalone optical critical dimension, or OCD, scatterometry) and a Materials Metrology Division built on x-ray methods, plus chemical metrology acquired with ancosys in 2022 and a modeling and analytics software layer that is arguably the real moat. A meaningful share of Nova's tools are integrated, meaning they are bolted directly onto another vendor's deposition or etch equipment, which makes Nova both a supplier to fabs and a partner to process-equipment makers. Customers are the logic foundries, memory makers, and packaging houses in Taiwan, Korea, Japan, China, and the United States, and manufacturing sits in Israel, Germany, and the United States, with a new Asian facility targeted to be operational by the end of 2026.

Full NVMI guide

CON vs NVMI: how do they differ?

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

CON drivers: Rate is carrying growth, not volume; Clinic density plus a capital-light onsite channel.
NVMI drivers: Gate-all-around and the rising metrology intensity of leading-edge logic; Advanced packaging and high-bandwidth memory.

Which fits which kind of investor

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Visit volumes track hiring and employment: employer services work is generated by new hires, and workers' compensation claims are generated by people actually on job sites, so a labor market slowdown hits both lines at once and there is no offsetting counter-cyclical revenue. For NVMI, nova sells capital equipment into an industry that has historically swung hard in both directions, so a pause in leading-edge capex at any of the handful of customers that matter would show up in orders within a quarter or two, and the current multiple leaves little room for that.

CON or NVMI: which should you pick?

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick CON if you believe its drivers more; NVMI if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the CON and NVMI guides.

CON vs NVMI: the full fundamentals

CON. The multiple is not demanding for a business compounding earnings in the 25% to 30% range, but the growth is a blend of acquisition contribution and administered rate increases rather than organic demand, which usually earns a lower multiple than an equivalent organic grower. Including net debt, enterprise value sits near ~$5.8 billion, or roughly ~12x the midpoint of 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance. Free cash flow guidance of ~$220 million to ~$240 million against a ~$4.4 billion market cap is the cleaner yardstick, since depreciation on a leased clinic network overstates the true reinvestment need.

NVMI. Market capitalization is roughly $12.5B on about 31.8M shares outstanding, which puts the stock near a 45x forward earnings multiple against roughly 25x for the average US semiconductor name, and above Nova's own 15-year average price-to-earnings ratio of about 37x. The premium is being paid for a record set of results, not a promise: fiscal 2025 revenue of ~$880.6M grew ~31% with GAAP net income of ~$259.2M, and both 2026 quarters so far set records with margins holding in the mid-50s. The offset is a 52-week range of roughly $233 to $616, which is the market repricing the same business by more than 2x inside a year as views on the leading-edge capex cycle shift.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): CON shows revenue (ttm) ~$2.29B, up ~14% year over year, net income (ttm) / eps ~$196M, ~$1.53 per share, fy 2026 guidance Revenue ~$2.325B to ~$2.375B, adjusted EBITDA ~$485M to ~$495M, market cap ~$4.4B at roughly ~$34.50 per share (~128M shares); NVMI shows revenue (ttm) ~$903M (trailing figure, before the record June quarter fully rolls in), q2 2026 revenue ~$255.0M (+16% YoY, +8% QoQ, a company record), gross margin (q2 2026) ~56.5% GAAP, ~58% non-GAAP, operating margin (q2 2026) ~30% GAAP, ~33% non-GAAP.

The bottom line: CON vs NVMI

CON and NVMI are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined CON and NVMI exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.

Wondering how CON or NVMI fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.

Investing in Concentra Group Holdings with AI

Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how CON fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.

See how it fits your portfolio

FAQ

What is the difference between CON and NVMI?

Is CON or NVMI the better stock?

Neither is universally better. NVMI is the larger incumbent; CON is the smaller challenger and looks cheaper on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.

Which is cheaper, CON or NVMI?

On forward P/E (as of August 2026), CON trades at 20.55x and NVMI at 29.92x, so CON is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.

Should you own both CON and NVMI?

Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.

What are the risks of CON vs NVMI?

CON: Visit volumes track hiring and employment: employer services work is generated by new hires, and workers' compensation claims are generated by people actually on job sites, so a labor market slowdown hits both lines at once and there is no offsetting counter-cyclical revenue. Reimbursement is set by state workers' compensation boards rather than negotiated, so a single large state trimming or freezing its fee schedule can remove growth that the company cannot recover operationally, and management has already flagged New York as less attractive than Texas, California, Florida, or Pennsylvania. Leverage near 3.0x net is manageable but leaves less room than a debt-free peer if volumes disappoint, and clinician wage inflation is a real cost pressure in a business that is mostly people and leases. The company also inherits litigation exposure from its Select Medical era, including consolidated data-breach class action claims tied to the Perry Johnson and Associates transcription incident. Finally, the stock has roughly doubled off its 52-week low and sits at the top of its range after the second quarter print, so a good deal of the improved execution is already reflected in the price. NVMI: Nova sells capital equipment into an industry that has historically swung hard in both directions, so a pause in leading-edge capex at any of the handful of customers that matter would show up in orders within a quarter or two, and the current multiple leaves little room for that. Concentration is real: four customers and three territories each represented at least 10% of product revenue, and China alone has been roughly 30% or more of the business even after declining from about 39%. That China exposure sits directly in the path of US, Dutch, and Japanese export controls plus tariff changes, none of which Nova controls. Operations, R&D, and a large share of manufacturing are concentrated in Israel, which carries geopolitical, mobilization, and logistics risk that the company itself flags at length in its 20-F. Competitively, KLA is far larger and holds the dominant share of metrology and inspection overall, while Onto Innovation and Camtek are pushing hard on the same advanced-packaging demand Nova is winning today, so share gains are not guaranteed to continue. Finally, the $750M convertible notes become dilutive to share count if the stock trades above the conversion price, and the shares have already traveled from roughly $233 to roughly $616 in a single year, which tells you how quickly sentiment on this name reprices.

Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell CON or NVMI; figures are approximate and dated (as of August 2026). Verify current data before investing.