Head-To-Head Survey: Nephros (NASDAQ:NEPH) & ImmuCell (NASDAQ:ICCC)

ImmuCell (NASDAQ:ICCC) and Nephros (NASDAQ:NEPH) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for ImmuCell and Nephros, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ImmuCell	1	0	0	0	1.00
Nephros	0	1	1	0	2.50

Nephros has a consensus price target of $6.00, suggesting a potential upside of 59.15%. Given Nephros’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Nephros is more favorable than ImmuCell.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares ImmuCell and Nephros”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ImmuCell	$26.49 million	2.21	-$2.16 million	$0.26	24.92
Nephros	$14.16 million	2.83	$70,000.00	$0.13	29.00

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.5% of ImmuCell shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.1% of Nephros shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.6% of ImmuCell shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.7% of Nephros shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

ImmuCell has a beta of 0.3, suggesting that its stock price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nephros has a beta of 1.4, suggesting that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares ImmuCell and Nephros’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ImmuCell	8.37%	8.00%	5.07%
Nephros	8.26%	15.81%	12.22%

Summary

Nephros beats ImmuCell on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ImmuCell

ImmuCell Corporation, an animal health company, develops, manufactures, and sells products that enhance the health and productivity of dairy and beef cattle in the United States and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Scours and Mastitis. It offers First Defense, an orally delivered scours preventive product for calves with claims against E. coli, coronavirus, and rotavirus; and Tri-Shield First Defense, a passive antibody product for the treatment of E. coli, coronavirus, and rotavirus. The company also provides California Mastitis Test, a quick on-farm diagnostic that is used to detect somatic cell counts in milk, as well as to determine, which quarter of the udder is mastitic; and Dual-Force First Defense, a bivalent gel tube formulation. In addition, it is developing Re-Tain Drug Product, a Nisin-based intramammary treatment of subclinical mastitis in lactating dairy cows. It sells its products through animal health distributors. ImmuCell Corporation was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Portland, Maine.

About Nephros

Nephros, Inc., a commercial-stage company, develops and sells water solutions to the medical and commercial markets in the United States. It offers ultrafiltration products that are used in dialysis centers for the removal of biological contaminants from water and bicarbonate concentrate; and in hospitals for the prevention of infection from waterborne pathogens, such as legionella and pseudomonas, as well as in military and outdoor recreation, commercial, and other healthcare facilities. The company also manufactures and sells water filters that enhance the taste and odor of water, as well as reduce biofilm, cysts, particulates, and scale build-up in downstream equipment. It markets its products to food service, hospitality, convenience store, and health care markets, as well as medical institutions. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in South Orange, New Jersey.