Veru (VERU) & Its Rivals Critical Analysis

Veru (NASDAQ:VERU) is one of 897 publicly-traded companies in the “Pharmaceuticals” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Veru to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

47.2% of Veru shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.4% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are held by institutional investors. 14.2% of Veru shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Veru and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Veru	1	0	3	0	2.50
Veru Competitors	7759	13846	25693	1031	2.41

Veru presently has a consensus price target of $24.50, indicating a potential upside of 1,018.72%. As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies have a potential upside of 23.90%. Given Veru’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Veru is more favorable than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Veru and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Veru	$16.89 million	-$22.73 million	-3.17
Veru Competitors	$4.46 billion	$3.17 billion	545.50

Veru’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Veru. Veru is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

Veru has a beta of -1.21, indicating that its stock price is 221% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veru’s competitors have a beta of -4.29, indicating that their average stock price is 529% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Veru and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Veru	N/A	-47.58%	-35.83%
Veru Competitors	-2,380.91%	-221.73%	-15.99%

Summary

Veru beats its competitors on 8 of the 13 factors compared.

Veru Company Profile

Veru Inc., a late clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing medicines for treatment of metabolic diseases, oncology, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Its marketed products comprise FC2 female condom for the dual protection against unplanned pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections. The company’s development program includes enobosarm, a selective androgen receptor modulator for treatment of augment fat loss and to prevent muscle loss in sarcopenic obese and overweight elderly patients; Enobosarm, a selective androgen receptor modulator for the treatment of AR+ ER+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer; and sabizabulin, a microtubule disruptor for the treatment of hospitalized patients with viral lung infection on oxygen support who are at high risk for viral induced ARDS and death. The company was formerly known as The Female Health Company and changed its name to Veru Inc. in July 2017. Veru Inc. was incorporated in 1971 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.