Reviewing Exagen (XGN) & Its Rivals

Exagen (NASDAQ:XGN) is one of 233 public companies in the “Healthcare Providers & Services” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Exagen to related businesses based on the strength of its dividends, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Exagen and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Exagen	$66.57 million	-$19.95 million	-10.30
Exagen Competitors	$21.01 billion	$288.54 million	7.41

Exagen’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Exagen. Exagen is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Exagen and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Exagen	1	0	7	1	2.89
Exagen Competitors	1849	7706	13267	815	2.55

Exagen currently has a consensus target price of $10.12, indicating a potential upside of 21.40%. As a group, “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies have a potential upside of 16.03%. Given Exagen’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Exagen is more favorable than its peers.

Risk and Volatility

Exagen has a beta of 2.25, suggesting that its share price is 125% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exagen’s peers have a beta of 0.98, suggesting that their average share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Exagen and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Exagen	-26.61%	-104.46%	-28.93%
Exagen Competitors	-7.69%	-141.09%	-1.47%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

75.2% of Exagen shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.8% of shares of all “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 10.4% of Exagen shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of shares of all “Healthcare Providers & Services” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Exagen beats its peers on 7 of the 12 factors compared.

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.