Critical Survey: Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE:EBS) vs. BioXcel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BTAI)

Emergent BioSolutions (NYSE:EBS) and BioXcel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:BTAI) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Emergent BioSolutions and BioXcel Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Emergent BioSolutions	-18.55%	-9.91%	-3.31%
BioXcel Therapeutics	-4,487.39%	N/A	-133.99%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Emergent BioSolutions and BioXcel Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Emergent BioSolutions	1	0	2	0	2.33
BioXcel Therapeutics	0	1	3	0	2.75

Emergent BioSolutions presently has a consensus price target of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 40.42%. BioXcel Therapeutics has a consensus price target of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 707.75%. Given BioXcel Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe BioXcel Therapeutics is more favorable than Emergent BioSolutions.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Emergent BioSolutions and BioXcel Therapeutics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Emergent BioSolutions	$1.05 billion	0.51	-$760.50 million	($4.10)	-2.43
BioXcel Therapeutics	$1.38 million	18.27	-$179.05 million	($3.56)	-0.17

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

78.4% of Emergent BioSolutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.7% of BioXcel Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Emergent BioSolutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 28.7% of BioXcel Therapeutics shares are owned by company 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.

Risk & Volatility

Emergent BioSolutions has a beta of 1.57, suggesting that its stock price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BioXcel Therapeutics has a beta of 0.29, suggesting that its stock price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BioXcel Therapeutics beats Emergent BioSolutions on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Emergent BioSolutions

Emergent BioSolutions Inc., a life sciences company, provides preparedness and response solutions for accidental, deliberate, and naturally occurring public health threats in the United States. The company offers NARCAN Nasal Spray for the emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdose; Vaxchora vaccine for the prevention of cholera; Vivotif vaccine for oral administration for the prevention of typhoid fever; Anthrasil for the treatment of inhalational anthrax; BioThrax, an anthrax vaccine; CYFENDUS for post-exposure prophylaxis of disease following suspected or confirmed exposure to Bacillus anthracis; and Raxibacumab injection for the treatment and prophylaxis of inhalational anthrax. It also provides ACAM2000, a smallpox vaccine; CNJ-016 to address complications from smallpox vaccination; TEMBEXA for the treatment of smallpox disease caused by variola virus in adult and pediatric patients; BAT for the treatment of symptomatic botulism; Ebanga for the treatment of Ebola; Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion Kit to remove or neutralize chemical warfare agents from the skin; Trobigard, a atropine sulfate obidoxime chloride auto-injector. In addition, the company is developing CGRD-001 for the treatment of poisoning by organophosphorus nerve agents or organophosphorus compounds; EBS-LASV to prevent Lassa fever; EBS-MARV to prevent Marburg virus disease; EBS-SUDV to prevent Sudan virus disease; Pan-Ebola mAbs for the treatment of ebola virus; SIAN Antidote for initial treatment of certain or suspected acute cyanide poisoning; UniFlu for immunity against influenza A and B viruses; and WEVEE-VLP for equine encephalitis virus infections. Further, it provides contract development and manufacturing services comprising drug substance and product manufacturing, and packaging, as well as technology transfer, process, and analytical development services. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

About BioXcel Therapeutics

BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in utilizing artificial intelligence approaches to develop transformative medicines in neuroscience and immuno-oncology. The company's drug re-innovation approach leverages existing approved drugs and/or clinically validated product candidates together with big data and proprietary machine learning algorithms to identify new therapeutic indices. Its commercial product, IGALMI, a sublingual film formulation of dexmedetomidine for the acute treatment of agitation associated with schizophrenia or bipolar I or II disorder in adults. The company also continues to conduct clinical trials evaluating BXCL501 for the acute treatment of agitation in Alzheimer's disease patients, and for adjunctive treatment of patients with major depressive disorder, as well as in the community for agitation associated with bipolar disorders and schizophrenia. In addition, it is developing BXCL502 as a potential therapy for chronic agitation in dementia; and BXCL701, an investigational, orally innate immunity activator for the treatment of aggressive forms of prostate cancer, pancreatic cancer, and other solid and liquid tumors; BXCL503, a drug candidate to target apathy in dementia; and BXCL504, a drug candidate to target aggression in dementia. BioXcel Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut.