ARS Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SPRY) & Vanda Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VNDA) Head-To-Head Analysis

ARS Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SPRY) and Vanda Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VNDA) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for ARS Pharmaceuticals and Vanda Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ARS Pharmaceuticals	1	1	4	0	2.50
Vanda Pharmaceuticals	1	2	6	0	2.56

ARS Pharmaceuticals currently has a consensus price target of $25.00, indicating a potential upside of 514.25%. Vanda Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $13.08, indicating a potential upside of 182.58%. Given ARS Pharmaceuticals’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe ARS Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Vanda Pharmaceuticals.

Volatility and Risk

ARS Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vanda Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ARS Pharmaceuticals and Vanda Pharmaceuticals”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ARS Pharmaceuticals	$116.93 million	3.46	-$171.30 million	($2.18)	-1.87
Vanda Pharmaceuticals	$215.72 million	1.30	-$220.47 million	($4.63)	-1.00

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

Profitability

This table compares ARS Pharmaceuticals and Vanda Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ARS Pharmaceuticals	-184.24%	-256.67%	-69.63%
Vanda Pharmaceuticals	-127.41%	-49.81%	-33.29%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.2% of ARS Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.1% of Vanda Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 33.8% of ARS Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 10.7% of Vanda Pharmaceuticals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Vanda Pharmaceuticals beats ARS Pharmaceuticals on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ARS Pharmaceuticals

ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops treatments for severe allergic reactions. The company is developing neffy, a needle-free and low-dose intranasal epinephrine nasal spray for the emergency treatment of Type I allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. It serves healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers. ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Vanda Pharmaceuticals

Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development and commercialization of therapies to address high unmet medical needs worldwide. The company’s marketed products include HETLIOZ to treat non-24-hour sleep-wake disorders; and Fanapt oral tablets for the treatment of schizophrenia. Its pipeline products include HETLIOZ (tasimelteon) to treat jet lag disorder, insomnia, delayed sleep phase disorder, sleep disturbances in autism spectrum disorder, and pediatric Non-24; Fanapt (iloperidone) for the treatment of bipolar I disorder and Parkinson’s disease psychosis, as well as a long acting injectable (LAI) formulation to treat schizophrenia; and Tradipitant (VLY-686), a small molecule neurokinin-1 receptor (NK-1R) antagonist to treat gastroparesis, motion sickness, atopic dermatitis, and COVID-19 pneumonia. The company’s pipeline products also include VTR-297, a small molecule histone deacetylase inhibitor to treat hematologic malignancies and with potential use as a treatment for various oncology indications; VQW-765, a small molecule nicotinic acetylcholine receptor partial agonist to treat performance anxiety and psychiatric disorders; VHX-896, an active metabolite of iloperidone; and antisense oligonucleotide molecules. In addition, it offers a portfolio of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator activators and inhibitors that include VSJ-110 for the treatment of dry eye and ocular inflammation; and VPO-227 for the treatment of secretory diarrhea disorders comprising cholera. Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.