Financial Survey: NRx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:NRXP) and Scilex (NASDAQ:SCLX)

Scilex (NASDAQ:SCLX) and NRx Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:NRXP) are both small-cap healthcare companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Scilex and NRx Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scilex	1	0	0	0	1.00
NRx Pharmaceuticals	2	0	5	0	2.43

NRx Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $34.50, indicating a potential upside of 923.74%. Given NRx Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe NRx Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Scilex.

Volatility & Risk

Scilex has a beta of 1.65, indicating that its share price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NRx Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 2.19, indicating that its share price is 119% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Scilex and NRx Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scilex	-1,414.57%	N/A	-147.00%
NRx Pharmaceuticals	-691.81%	N/A	-63.92%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

69.7% of Scilex shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 4.3% of NRx Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 4.5% of Scilex shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.4% of NRx Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Scilex and NRx Pharmaceuticals”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Scilex	$30.25 million	1.46	-$358.73 million	($49.70)	-0.10
NRx Pharmaceuticals	$1.23 million	118.63	-$28.62 million	($0.55)	-6.13

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

Summary

NRx Pharmaceuticals beats Scilex on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Scilex

Scilex Holding Company focuses on acquiring, developing, and commercializing non-opioid pain management products for the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Its commercial products include ZTlido (lidocaine topical system) 1.8% (ZTlido), a prescription lidocaine topical product for the relief of neuropathic pain associated with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), which is a form of post-shingles nerve pain; ELYXYB, a ready-to-use oral solution for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura in adults; and GLOPERBA, a liquid oral version of the anti-gout medicine colchicine indicated for the prophylaxis of painful gout flares in adults. The company is also developing three product candidates, including SP-102 (10 mg dexamethasone sodium phosphate viscous gel) (SEMDEXA), a novel viscous gel formulation of a used corticosteroid for epidural injections, which has completed a Phase 3 study to treat lumbosacral radicular pain or sciatica; SP-103 (lidocaine topical system) 5.4% (SP-103), a formulation of ZTlido for the treatment of chronic neck pain and low back pain (LBP) that has completed a Phase 2 trial; and SP-104 (4.5 mg low-dose naltrexone hydrochloride delayed-release capsules) (SP-104), a novel low-dose delayed-release naltrexone hydrochloride, which has completed Phase 1 trials for the treatment of fibromyalgia. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

About NRx Pharmaceuticals

NRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage bio-pharmaceutical company, develops novel therapeutics for the treatment of central nervous system disorders, including suicidal depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic pain. Its products include NRX-101 (D-cycloserine/Lurasidone), an oral, fixed dosed combination of D-cycloserine and lurasidone that earned food and drug administration-designated breakthrough therapy for suicidal treatment-resistant bipolar depression; and NRX-100 (ketamine), which has been awarded FDA fast track designation for the treatment of severe bipolar depression with acute suicidal ideation and behavior. The company has a partnership with Alvogen Inc. and Lotus Pharmaceutical Company; development and manufacturing agreement with Nephron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Alcami; license agreement with Apkarian Technologies; development and license agreement with Glytech; license agreement with Sarah Herzog Memorial Hospital. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware.