Head to Head Survey: Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV) and Eton Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ETON)

Eton Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ETON) and Aravive (NASDAQ:ARAV) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Eton Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aravive has a beta of 2.19, indicating that its stock price is 119% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Eton Pharmaceuticals and Aravive, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Eton Pharmaceuticals	0	0	3	0	3.00
Aravive	0	0	0	0	0.00

Eton Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus target price of $27.67, indicating a potential upside of 116.82%. Given Eton Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Eton Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Aravive.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Eton Pharmaceuticals and Aravive”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Eton Pharmaceuticals	$39.01 million	8.77	-$940,000.00	($0.15)	-85.07
Aravive	$6.99 million	0.42	-$76.32 million	N/A	N/A

Eton Pharmaceuticals has higher revenue and earnings than Aravive.

Profitability

This table compares Eton Pharmaceuticals and Aravive’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Eton Pharmaceuticals	-15.81%	-36.29%	-16.84%
Aravive	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

27.9% of Eton Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 35.8% of Aravive shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.9% of Eton Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 60.4% of Aravive shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

About Eton Pharmaceuticals

Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, focuses on developing, acquiring, and commercializing pharmaceutical products for rare diseases. The company offers ALKINDI SPRINKLE, a replacement therapy for adrenocortical insufficiency in children under 17 years of age; Carglumic Acid for the treatment of acute and chronic hyperammonemia due to N-acetylglutamate Synthase deficiency; Betaine Anhydrous for the treatment of homocystinuria; and Nitisinone for the treatment of tyrosinemia type 1. It also provides Zeneo hydrocortisone autoinjector for the treatment of adrenal crisis. Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Deer Park, Illinois.

About Aravive

Aravive, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, develops transformative treatments for life-threatening diseases, including cancer and fibrosis in the United States. Its lead product candidate is batiraxcept, an ultrahigh-affinity, decoy protein that targets the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway, which is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of platinum- resistant recurrent ovarian cancer; and in Phase Ib/II clinical trial for the treatment of clear cell renal cell carcinoma and pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The company also develops AVB-S6, a soluble Fc-fusion protein to block the activation of the GAS6-AXL signaling pathway. It has a license and collaboration agreement with WuXi Biologics (Hong Kong) Limited to identify and develop novel high-affinity bispecific antibodies targeting cancer and fibrosis; and license agreement with 3D Medicines Inc. to develop products that contain batiraxcept as the sole drug substance for the treatment of human oncological diseases in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company was formerly known as Versartis, Inc. and changed its name to Aravive, Inc. in October 2018. Aravive, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.