Head to Head Analysis: Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) versus NovAccess Global (OTCMKTS:XSNX)

Protagonist Therapeutics (NASDAQ:PTGX) and NovAccess Global (OTCMKTS:XSNX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.6% of Protagonist Therapeutics shares are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of Protagonist Therapeutics shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of NovAccess Global 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Protagonist Therapeutics and NovAccess Global, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Protagonist Therapeutics	0	0	4	0	3.00
NovAccess Global	0	0	0	0	N/A

Protagonist Therapeutics currently has a consensus target price of $36.00, indicating a potential upside of 35.29%. Given Protagonist Therapeutics’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Protagonist Therapeutics is more favorable than NovAccess Global.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Protagonist Therapeutics and NovAccess Global’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Protagonist Therapeutics	$60.00 million	25.85	-$78.96 million	($1.49)	-17.86
NovAccess Global	N/A	N/A	-$4.72 million	($0.10)	-0.07

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

Profitability

This table compares Protagonist Therapeutics and NovAccess Global’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Protagonist Therapeutics	N/A	-27.49%	-25.30%
NovAccess Global	N/A	N/A	-877.60%

Risk and Volatility

Protagonist Therapeutics has a beta of 2.02, meaning that its stock price is 102% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NovAccess Global has a beta of 1.51, meaning that its stock price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Protagonist Therapeutics beats NovAccess Global on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Protagonist Therapeutics

Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops peptide-based drugs for hematology and blood disorders, and inflammatory and immunomodulatory diseases. It is developing Rusfertide (PTG-300), an injectable hepcidin mimetic that completed phase 2 clinical trials for the treatment of polycythemia vera and other blood disorders; and JNJ-2113, an orally delivered investigational drug to block biological pathways that completed phase 2b clinical trials for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis; and PN-943, an orally delivered, gut-restricted alpha 4 beta 7 specific integrin antagonist completed a phase 2 clinical trials in patients with moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. The company has a license and collaboration agreement with Takeda to commercialize rusfertide; and JNJ Innovative Medicines to co-develop Interleukin-23 receptor antagonist compound JNJ-2113. Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Newark, California.

About NovAccess Global

NovAccess Global Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops novel immunotherapies to treat brain tumor patients in the United States. It specializes in cutting-edge research related to utilizing a patient's immune system to attack the cancer. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.