Critical Review: ImmuCell (ICCC) & The Competition

ImmuCell (NASDAQ:ICCC) is one of 896 public companies in the “Pharmaceuticals” industry, but how does it contrast to its rivals? We will compare ImmuCell to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

13.5% of ImmuCell shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.5% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 5.7% of ImmuCell shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of shares of all “Pharmaceuticals” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares ImmuCell and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ImmuCell	2.57%	2.69%	1.76%
ImmuCell Competitors	-2,380.38%	-217.94%	-15.54%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ImmuCell and its rivals revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
ImmuCell	$27.64 million	-$1.04 million	122.50
ImmuCell Competitors	$3.54 billion	$3.18 billion	553.85

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

Volatility & Risk

ImmuCell has a beta of 0.61, meaning that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ImmuCell’s rivals have a beta of -3.71, meaning that their average stock price is 471% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for ImmuCell and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ImmuCell	0	1	0	0	2.00
ImmuCell Competitors	7798	13888	25778	1037	2.41

As a group, “Pharmaceuticals” companies have a potential upside of 25.65%. Given ImmuCell’s rivals stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ImmuCell has less favorable growth aspects than its rivals.

Summary

ImmuCell rivals beat ImmuCell on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

About ImmuCell

ImmuCell Corporation, an animal health company, develops, manufactures, and sells products that enhance the health and productivity of dairy and beef cattle in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Scours and Mastitis. It offers First Defense, an orally delivered scours preventive product for calves with claims against E. coli, coronavirus, and rotavirus; and Tri-Shield First Defense, a passive antibody product for the treatment of E. coli, coronavirus, and rotavirus. The company also provides California Mastitis Test, a quick on-farm diagnostic that is used to detect somatic cell counts in milk, as well as to determine, which quarter of the udder is mastitic; and Dual-Force First Defense, a bivalent gel tube formulation. In addition, it is developing Re-Tain Drug Product, a Nisin-based intramammary treatment of subclinical mastitis in lactating dairy cows. It sells its products through animal health distributors. ImmuCell Corporation was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Portland, Maine.