Analyzing Zymergen (ZY) and Its Rivals

Zymergen (NASDAQ:ZY – Get Rating) is one of 40 public companies in the “Commercial physical research” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Zymergen to similar businesses based on the strength of its dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Zymergen and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Zymergen	$16.74 million	-$361.79 million	-0.18
Zymergen Competitors	$2.79 billion	$101.13 million	22.16

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

Profitability

This table compares Zymergen and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Zymergen	-2,160.81%	-213.99%	-64.50%
Zymergen Competitors	-255.16%	-16.00%	-2.18%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

48.8% of Zymergen shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of shares of all “Commercial physical research” companies are owned by institutional investors. 10.6% of shares of all “Commercial physical research” companies 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Zymergen and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Zymergen	3	5	0	0	1.63
Zymergen Competitors	99	741	1293	30	2.58

Zymergen currently has a consensus price target of $6.75, indicating a potential upside of 283.52%. As a group, “Commercial physical research” companies have a potential upside of 26.48%. Given Zymergen’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Zymergen is more favorable than its competitors.

Summary

Zymergen competitors beat Zymergen on 11 of the 12 factors compared.

Zymergen Company Profile (Get Rating)

Zymergen Inc. design, develop, and commercialize microbes, molecules, and materials. It offers an automation solution comprising reconfigurable automation carts, a modular hardware building blocks that allow for assembly of work cells customized for the particular needs of a lab; and automation control software, a cloud-based software used to control integrated automation systems. It serves electronics, packaging, healthcare, agriculture, and other industries. Zymergen Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is based in Emeryville, California.