Comparing Phibro Animal Health (NASDAQ:PAHC) and Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SAGE)

Phibro Animal Health (NASDAQ:PAHC) and Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ:SAGE) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Phibro Animal Health and Sage Therapeutics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Phibro Animal Health	2	2	0	0	1.50
Sage Therapeutics	2	16	2	0	2.00

Phibro Animal Health presently has a consensus target price of $21.00, suggesting a potential downside of 18.51%. Sage Therapeutics has a consensus target price of $9.65, suggesting a potential upside of 35.11%. Given Sage Therapeutics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Sage Therapeutics is more favorable than Phibro Animal Health.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.3% of Phibro Animal Health shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.2% of Sage Therapeutics shares are owned by institutional investors. 50.1% of Phibro Animal Health shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.5% of Sage Therapeutics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Phibro Animal Health has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sage Therapeutics has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Phibro Animal Health and Sage Therapeutics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Phibro Animal Health	1.75%	25.35%	6.21%
Sage Therapeutics	-317.29%	-50.29%	-45.48%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Phibro Animal Health and Sage Therapeutics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Phibro Animal Health	$1.02 billion	1.03	$2.42 million	$0.48	53.69
Sage Therapeutics	$86.46 million	5.05	-$541.49 million	($5.58)	-1.28

Phibro Animal Health has higher revenue and earnings than Sage Therapeutics. Sage Therapeutics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Phibro Animal Health, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Phibro Animal Health beats Sage Therapeutics on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Phibro Animal Health

Phibro Animal Health Corporation operates as an animal health and mineral nutrition company in the United States, Israel, Brazil, Ireland, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Animal Health, Mineral Nutrition, and Performance Products. The company develops, manufactures, and markets various products for food and companion animals including poultry, swine, beef and dairy cattle, aquaculture, and dogs. It also offers animal health products, such as antibacterials, anticoccidials, nutritional specialty, and vaccines and vaccine adjuvants for animal’s health and performance, food safety, and animal welfare; and engages in development, manufacturing, and marketing of microbial and bioproducts for various applications serving animal health and nutrition, environmental, industrial, and agricultural customers. In addition, the company develops, manufactures, and markets conventionally licensed and autogenous vaccine products, as well as adjuvants for animal vaccine manufacturers. Further, it provides formulations and concentrations of trace minerals, such as zinc, manganese, copper, iron, and other compounds to fortify the daily feed requirements of their livestock’s diets and maintain optimal balance of trace elements in animals. Additionally, the company offers specialty ingredients for personal care, industrial chemical, and chemical catalyst industries. It sells its animal health and mineral nutrition products through local sales offices to integrated poultry, swine, and cattle producers, as well as through commercial animal feed manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. The company was formerly known as Philipp Brothers Chemicals, Inc. and changed its name to Phibro Animal Health Corporation in July 2003. Phibro Animal Health Corporation was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey.

About Sage Therapeutics

Sage Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes brain health medicines. Its product candidates include ZULRESSO, a CIV injection for the treatment of postpartum depression (PPD) in adults; and ZURZUVAE, a neuroactive steroid, a positive allosteric modulator of GABAA receptors, targeting both synaptic and extrasynaptic GABAA receptors, for the treatment of postpartum depression. Its product pipeline also comprises SAGE-324, a compound that is in Phase II clinical trial to treat essential tremors, as well as has completed Phase I clinical trial for epilepsy and Parkinson's diseases; and SAGE-718, an oxysterol-based positive allosteric modulator of the NMDA receptor, which is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of depression, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's diseases, Alzheimer's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and neuropathic pain. The company has a strategic collaboration with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. for the development and commercialization of zuranolone in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea; and a collaboration and license agreement with Biogen MA Inc. to jointly develop and commercialize SAGE-217 and SAGE-324 products. The company was formerly known as Sterogen Biopharma, Inc. and changed its name to Sage Therapeutics, Inc. in September 2011. Sage Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.