Head to Head Review: CASI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CASI) and Salarius Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SLRX)

CASI Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:CASI) and Salarius Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SLRX) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for CASI Pharmaceuticals and Salarius Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CASI Pharmaceuticals	0	0	1	0	3.00
Salarius Pharmaceuticals	0	0	0	0	0.00

CASI Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus price target of $4.00, indicating a potential upside of 64.61%. Given CASI Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe CASI Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Salarius Pharmaceuticals.

Risk & Volatility

CASI Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Salarius Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CASI Pharmaceuticals	$28.54 million	1.05	-$39.26 million	($2.55)	-0.95
Salarius Pharmaceuticals	N/A	N/A	-$5.58 million	($43.48)	-0.13

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

Profitability

This table compares CASI Pharmaceuticals and Salarius Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CASI Pharmaceuticals	-129.05%	-972.55%	-77.33%
Salarius Pharmaceuticals	N/A	-556.47%	-192.35%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

22.2% of CASI Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 11.9% of Salarius Pharmaceuticals shares are held by institutional investors. 21.2% of CASI Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Salarius Pharmaceuticals shares are held by company 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.

Summary

CASI Pharmaceuticals beats Salarius Pharmaceuticals on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CASI Pharmaceuticals

CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops and commercializes therapeutics and pharmaceutical products in the People's Republic of China, the United States, and internationally. It offers EVOMELA, an intravenous formulation of melphalan for use as a conditioning treatment prior to stem cell transplantation, and as a palliative treatment for patients with multiple myeloma. The company's other hematology/oncology assets in pipeline include CNCT 19, an autologous CD19 CAR-T investigative product; BI-1206, novel anti-Fc?RIIB antibody, for the treatment of solid tumors and relapsed/refractory non-hodgkin lymphoma; CB-5339, a novel VCP/p97 inhibitor that focuses on valosin-containing protein (VCP)/p97 as a novel target in protein homeostasis, DNA damage response, and other cellular stress pathways for therapeutic use in the treatment of patients with various malignancies; CID-103, a human IgG1 anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody; and Thiotepa, a chemotherapeutic agent, which has various indications, including use as a conditioning treatment for use prior to certain allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplants. The company has licensing agreements with Juventas Cell Therapy Ltd.; BioInvent International AB; Black Belt Therapeutics Limited; Cleave Therapeutics, Inc.; and Acrotech Biopharma L.L.C. to develop and commercialize its commercial product EVOMELA. It also has distribution agreements with China Resources Pharmaceutical Commercial Group International Trading Co., Ltd; Pharmathen Global BV; and Riemser Pharma GmbH. CASI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is based in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

About Salarius Pharmaceuticals

Salarius Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, focuses on developing treatments for cancers with unmet medical need. Its lead candidate is Seclidemstat (SP-2577), a small molecular inhibitor which is in Phase I/II clinical trial for the treatment of advanced solid tumors, as well as Ewing sarcoma. The company also offers SP-3164, a small molecular protein degrader for the treatment of hematological and solid tumors. It has a strategic partnership with The University of Utah Research Foundation for the exclusive license with respect to patent rights protecting SP-2577 and related compounds and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas for product development activities. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas.