Critical Survey: Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) vs. Quanterix (NASDAQ:QTRX)

Quanterix (NASDAQ:QTRX) and Neogen (NASDAQ:NEOG) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, profitability and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Quanterix and Neogen”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Quanterix	$138.90 million	1.18	-$107.15 million	($2.52)	-1.38
Neogen	$894.66 million	2.28	-$1.09 billion	($2.77)	-3.39

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

86.5% of Quanterix shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.7% of Neogen shares are held by institutional investors. 6.8% of Quanterix shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Neogen shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Quanterix has a beta of 1.32, meaning that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Neogen has a beta of 1.97, meaning that its share price is 97% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Quanterix and Neogen’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Quanterix	-77.14%	-23.96%	-17.86%
Neogen	-68.47%	2.14%	1.35%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Quanterix and Neogen, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Quanterix	1	2	0	0	1.67
Neogen	1	3	2	0	2.17

Quanterix currently has a consensus price target of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 129.89%. Neogen has a consensus price target of $10.67, suggesting a potential upside of 13.60%. Given Quanterix’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Quanterix is more favorable than Neogen.

Summary

Neogen beats Quanterix on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Quanterix

Quanterix Corporation, a life sciences company, engages in development and marketing of digital immunoassay platforms that advances precision health for life sciences research and diagnostics in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. The company offers HD-X instrument, a protein detection platform; and SR-X instrument that enables researchers to apply Simoa detection in an expanded range of applications. It also provides SP-X instrument that is based on Simoa planar array technology for the measurement of multiplex chemiluminescent immunoassays. The company's products include assays include all components required to run enzyme-based immunoassay, such as beads, capture and detector reagents, and enzyme reagents and substrate; and replacement parts, reagents, and antibodies. In addition, it offers contract research services, including sample testing, homebrew assay development, custom assay development, lucent diagnostic, and LDT testing services. The company primarily operates in the areas of neurology, oncology, cardiology, infectious diseases, and inflammation. It sells its products for the life science research sector primarily to laboratories associated with academic and governmental research institutions, as well as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and contract research companies through a direct field sale, support organizations, and distributors or sales agents. The company was formerly known as Digital Genomics, Inc. and changed its name to Quanterix Corporation in August 2007. Quanterix Corporation was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts.

About Neogen

Neogen Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of various products and services dedicated to food and animal safety worldwide. It operates through two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment offers diagnostic test kits and related products to detect dangerous and unintended substances in food and animal feed, including foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, meat speciation, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns; and AccuPoint Advanced rapid sanitation test to detect the presence of adenosine triphosphate, a chemical found in living cells, as well as provides genomics-based diagnostic technology and software systems that help testers to objectively analyze and store their results and perform analysis on the results from multiple locations over extended periods. The segment offers its products primarily to milling and grain, meat and poultry, prepared foods and ingredients, fruits and vegetables, seafood, dairy, beverage, water, healthcare, traditional culture media markets, food service, and dietary supplements markets. The Animal Safety segment provides veterinary instruments, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, topicals, parasiticides, diagnostic products, rodent control products, cleaners, disinfectants, insect control products, and genomics testing services marketed through veterinarians, retailers, livestock producers, and animal health product distributors, for the animal safety market. The segment offers its products for companion animal veterinarians; livestock producers, veterinarians, and breed associations; retailers; breeding and genetics companies; diagnostic labs and universities; distributors; and other manufacturers and government agencies. Neogen Corporation was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Lansing, Michigan.