Analyzing Quanterix (NASDAQ:QTRX) and Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG)

Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) and Quanterix (NASDAQ:QTRX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Neogen and Quanterix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Neogen	-68.47%	2.14%	1.35%
Quanterix	-77.14%	-23.96%	-17.86%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.7% of Neogen shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.5% of Quanterix shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Neogen shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.8% of Quanterix shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Neogen has a beta of 1.95, meaning that its share price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Quanterix has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Neogen and Quanterix”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Neogen	$894.66 million	2.22	-$1.09 billion	($2.77)	-3.30
Quanterix	$138.90 million	1.32	-$107.15 million	($2.52)	-1.55

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Neogen and Quanterix, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Neogen	1	3	2	0	2.17
Quanterix	1	2	0	0	1.67

Neogen currently has a consensus target price of $10.67, suggesting a potential upside of 16.77%. Quanterix has a consensus target price of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 105.39%. Given Quanterix’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Quanterix is more favorable than Neogen.

Summary

Neogen beats Quanterix on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Neogen

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods. The segment offers its products primarily to milling and grain, meat and poultry, prepared foods and ingredients, fruits and vegetables, seafood, dairy, beverage, water, healthcare, traditional culture media markets, food service, and dietary supplements markets. The Animal Safety segment provides veterinary instruments, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, topicals, parasiticides, diagnostic products, rodent control products, cleaners, disinfectants, insect control products, and genomics testing services marketed through veterinarians, retailers, livestock producers, and animal health product distributors, for the animal safety market. The segment offers its products for companion animal veterinarians; livestock producers, veterinarians, and breed associations; retailers; breeding and genetics companies; diagnostic labs and universities; distributors; and other manufacturers and government agencies. Neogen Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Lansing, Michigan.

About Quanterix

Quanterix Corporation, a life sciences company, engages in development and marketing of digital immunoassay platforms that advances precision health for life sciences research and diagnostics in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. The company offers HD-X instrument, a protein detection platform; and SR-X instrument that enables researchers to apply Simoa detection in an expanded range of applications. It also provides SP-X instrument that is based on Simoa planar array technology for the measurement of multiplex chemiluminescent immunoassays. The company's products include assays include all components required to run enzyme-based immunoassay, such as beads, capture and detector reagents, and enzyme reagents and substrate; and replacement parts, reagents, and antibodies. In addition, it offers contract research services, including sample testing, homebrew assay development, custom assay development, lucent diagnostic, and LDT testing services. The company primarily operates in the areas of neurology, oncology, cardiology, infectious diseases, and inflammation. It sells its products for the life science research sector primarily to laboratories associated with academic and governmental research institutions, as well as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and contract research companies through a direct field sale, support organizations, and distributors or sales agents. The company was formerly known as Digital Genomics, Inc. and changed its name to Quanterix Corporation in August 2007. Quanterix Corporation was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts.