Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) & Sharps Technology (NASDAQ:STSS) Financial Comparison

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Exagen and Sharps Technology, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Exagen	1	0	8	0	2.78
Sharps Technology	1	0	0	0	1.00

Exagen currently has a consensus target price of $9.25, suggesting a potential upside of 84.63%. Given Exagen’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Exagen is more favorable than Sharps Technology.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

75.3% of Exagen shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.2% of Sharps Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.6% of Exagen shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Sharps Technology shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Exagen and Sharps Technology”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Exagen	$66.57 million	1.82	-$19.95 million	($0.89)	-5.63
Sharps Technology	$396,900.00	196.20	-$282.50 million	($1.63)	-1.13

Exagen has higher revenue and earnings than Sharps Technology. Exagen is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sharps Technology, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Exagen has a beta of 1.81, suggesting that its share price is 81% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sharps Technology has a beta of 2.03, suggesting that its share price is 103% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Exagen and Sharps Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Exagen	-29.49%	-94.37%	-28.96%
Sharps Technology	N/A	-157.91%	-154.40%

Summary

Exagen beats Sharps Technology on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Exagen

Exagen Inc. develops and commercializes various testing products under the AVISE brand in the United States. The company enables healthcare providers to care for patients through the diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of autoimmune and autoimmune-related diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Its lead testing product is AVISE CTD that enables differential diagnosis for patients presenting with symptoms indicative of various connective tissue diseases (CTDs) and other related diseases with overlapping symptoms. The company offers AVISE Lupus that measures activation of the complement system by quantifying the level of B-cell C4d and erythrocyte bound C4d in the patient's blood; and AVISE APS, which consists of a panel of autoantibody tests that aids in the diagnosis and management of APS. In addition, it provides AVISE Vasculitis AAV, which utilizes a testing panel of individual analytes to provide physicians with results in the assessment and monitoring of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody associated vasculitis; AVISE SLE Prognostic, a panel of autoantibodies for assessing the potential for complications affecting the kidney, brain, and cardiovascular system; and AVISE Anti-CarP test, which identifies RA patients with severe disease. Further, the company offers AVISE SLE Monitor, a biomarker blood test; AVISE MTX, a patented and validated blood test; and AVISE HCQ, a blood test to monitor levels of hydroxychloroquine. It has a research collaboration and license agreement with Allegheny Health Network (AHN) Research Institute to develop novel patented biomarkers. The company was formerly known as Exagen Diagnostics, Inc. and changed its name to Exagen Inc. in January 2019. Exagen Inc. was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Vista, California.

About Sharps Technology

Sharps Technology, Inc., a medical device company, researches, designs, develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells safety syringe products in the United States. It offers Sharps Provensa, an ultra-low waste space syringe for the administration of various vaccines and injectable medications. Sharps Technology, Inc. was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Melville, New York.