Head-To-Head Review: SCYNEXIS (NASDAQ:SCYX) & Amarin (NASDAQ:AMRN)

SCYNEXIS (NASDAQ:SCYX) and Amarin (NASDAQ:AMRN) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.4% of SCYNEXIS shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.3% of Amarin shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of SCYNEXIS shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.2% of Amarin shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

SCYNEXIS has a beta of 1.06, indicating that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amarin has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for SCYNEXIS and Amarin, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SCYNEXIS	1	0	2	0	2.33
Amarin	2	1	0	0	1.33

SCYNEXIS presently has a consensus target price of $33.00, indicating a potential upside of 544.53%. Amarin has a consensus target price of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 5.26%. Given SCYNEXIS’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe SCYNEXIS is more favorable than Amarin.

Profitability

This table compares SCYNEXIS and Amarin’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SCYNEXIS	N/A	-44.15%	-32.61%
Amarin	-14.56%	-0.20%	-0.14%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SCYNEXIS and Amarin”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SCYNEXIS	$19.22 million	2.65	-$8.61 million	($2.09)	-2.45
Amarin	$213.65 million	1.22	-$38.80 million	($0.99)	-12.47

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

Summary

SCYNEXIS beats Amarin on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SCYNEXIS

SCYNEXIS, Inc., a biotechnology company, develops medicines to overcome and prevent difficult-to-treat and drug-resistant infections in the United States. It offers BREXAFEMME for the treatment of patients with vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and recurrent VVC. The company's lead product candidate is Ibrexafungerp, an intravenous drug for the treatment of invasive candidiasis and/or candidemia, refractory invasive fungal infections, invasive aspergillosis, VVC, and recurrent VVC. It also develops SCY-247 to treat systemic fungal diseases. The company has licensing and collaboration agreements with GlaxoSmithKline Intellectual Property (No. 3) Limited, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Hansoh (Shanghai) Health Technology Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Hansoh Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited, and R-Pharm, CJSC for the development, manufacture, and commercialization of ibrexafungerp. SCYNEXIS, Inc. was formerly known as SCYNEXIS Chemistry & Automation, Inc. and changed its name to SCYNEXIS, Inc. in June 2002. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.

About Amarin

Amarin Corporation plc, a pharmaceutical company, engages in the development and commercialization of therapeutics for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in the United States, European countries, Canada, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates. The company offers VASCEPA, a prescription-only omega-3 fatty acid product, used as an adjunct to diet for reducing triglyceride levels in adult patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. It sells its products principally to wholesalers and specialty pharmacy providers. The company has a collaboration with Mochida Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize drug products and indications based on the active pharmaceutical ingredient in Vascepa. The company was formerly known as Ethical Holdings plc and changed its name to Amarin Corporation plc in 1999. Amarin Corporation plc was incorporated in 1989 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.