MeiraGTx (NASDAQ:MGTX) versus LadRx (OTCMKTS:CYTR) Critical Review

MeiraGTx (NASDAQ:MGTX) and LadRx (OTCMKTS:CYTR) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for MeiraGTx and LadRx, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MeiraGTx	0	0	2	0	3.00
LadRx	0	0	0	0	N/A

MeiraGTx presently has a consensus target price of $22.50, indicating a potential upside of 426.93%. Given MeiraGTx’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe MeiraGTx is more favorable than LadRx.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

67.5% of MeiraGTx shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.1% of LadRx shares are held by institutional investors. 8.4% of MeiraGTx shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.8% of LadRx shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares MeiraGTx and LadRx’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MeiraGTx	-1,146.81%	-152.82%	-56.41%
LadRx	N/A	-67.61%	-45.39%

Risk and Volatility

MeiraGTx has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LadRx has a beta of 1.96, meaning that its stock price is 96% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MeiraGTx and LadRx”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MeiraGTx	$8.12 million	33.81	-$84.03 million	($1.17)	-3.65
LadRx	N/A	N/A	-$6.70 million	($0.15)	-0.61

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

Summary

LadRx beats MeiraGTx on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MeiraGTx

MeiraGTx Holdings plc, a clinical stage gene therapy company, focusing on developing treatments for patients with serious diseases. The company develops various therapies for ocular diseases, including inherited retinal diseases and large degenerative ocular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and xerostomia. Its programs in clinical development include Phase I/II clinical stage programs in achromatopsia, X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, and RPE65-deficiency; Phase I clinical trials for radiation-induced xerostomia; and Parkinson's program that has completed a Phase II trial. It has a research collaboration agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the research, development, and commercialization of gene therapies for the treatment of inherited retinal disease. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is based in New York, New York.

About LadRx

LadRx Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery and development of therapeutics to treat patients with cancer. The company's advanced drug conjugate, aldoxorubicin that is in late-stage clinical trials is a version of anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. Its pre-clinical therapeutics comprise linker activated drug releases 7, 8, 9, and 10 targeted against cancer The company was formerly known as CytRx Corporation and changed its name to LadRx Corporation in September 2022. LadRx Corporation was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.