Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) vs. OKYO Pharma (NASDAQ:OKYO) Critical Comparison

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

Volatility and Risk

OKYO Pharma has a beta of -0.04, indicating that its stock price is 104% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Qiagen has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for OKYO Pharma and Qiagen, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
OKYO Pharma	0	0	1	0	3.00
Qiagen	0	3	6	0	2.67

OKYO Pharma currently has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 603.52%. Qiagen has a consensus price target of $51.10, suggesting a potential upside of 12.50%. Given OKYO Pharma’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe OKYO Pharma is more favorable than Qiagen.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

3.0% of OKYO Pharma shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.0% of Qiagen shares are held by institutional investors. 40.5% of OKYO Pharma shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of Qiagen shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares OKYO Pharma and Qiagen’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
OKYO Pharma	N/A	N/A	-$13.27 million	N/A	N/A
Qiagen	$1.97 billion	5.27	$341.30 million	$1.49	30.46

Qiagen has higher revenue and earnings than OKYO Pharma.

Profitability

This table compares OKYO Pharma and Qiagen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
OKYO Pharma	N/A	N/A	N/A
Qiagen	3.75%	12.92%	8.01%

Summary

Qiagen beats OKYO Pharma on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About OKYO Pharma

OKYO Pharma Limited, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in developing therapeutics for patients suffering from inflammatory eye diseases and ocular pain in the United Kingdom. Its lead preclinical product candidate is OK-101, which is in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of dry eye disease. The company is also developing OK-201, a bovine adrenal medulla, lipidated-peptide preclinical analogue candidate for the treatment of neuropathic chronic pain. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Qiagen

QIAGEN N.V. offers sample to insight solutions that transform biological materials into molecular insights worldwide. The company provides primary sample technology consumables, such as nucleic stabilization and purification kits for primary sample materials, manual and automated processing for genotyping, gene expression, and viral and bacterial analysis, as well as silica membranes and magnetic bead technologies; secondary sample technology consumables, including kits and components for purification of nucleic acids from secondary sample materials; and instruments for nucleic acid purification and accessories. It also provides interferon-gamma release assay for TB testing, and assays for post-transplant testing and viral load monitoring; assays for prenatal testing and detection of sexually transmitted diseases and HPV, as well as assays for analysis of genomic variants, such as mutations, insertions, deletions, and fusions; and sample to insight instruments, including one-step molecular analysis of hard-to-diagnose syndromes, and integrated PCR testing. In addition, it offers PCR consumables, such as quantitative PCR, reverse transcription, and combinations kits for analysis of gene expression, genotyping and gene regulation, and running on QIAGEN instruments and technologies; human ID and forensics assay consumables, including STR assays for human ID, and assays for food contamination; PCR instruments consist of digital PCR and qPCR solutions; and developed and configured enzymes and PCR solutions. Further, the company provides predefined and custom NGS gene panels, library prep kits and components, and whole genome amplification; QIAGEN consumables and instruments, as well as bioinformatics solutions; and custom laboratory and genomic services. It serves molecular diagnostics, academia, pharmaceutical, and applied testing customers. The company was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Venlo, the Netherlands.