BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:BCRX) versus Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) Head-To-Head Analysis

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

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	$450.71 million	3.97	-$88.88 million	($0.18)	-47.33
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	$235.13 million	6.78	$5.75 million	$0.43	28.16

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	0	1	9	0	2.90
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	0	0	3	0	3.00

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals presently has a consensus target price of $16.70, indicating a potential upside of 96.01%. Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has a consensus target price of $12.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.91%. Given BioCryst Pharmaceuticals’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe BioCryst Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than Aurinia Pharmaceuticals.

Risk and Volatility

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals	-6.41%	N/A	-1.78%
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	23.31%	20.06%	13.81%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

85.9% of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.8% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.1% of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.2% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals beats BioCryst Pharmaceuticals on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BioCryst Pharmaceuticals

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company, develops oral small-molecule and protein therapeutics to treat rare diseases. The company markets peramivir injection, an intravenous neuraminidase inhibitor for the treatment of acute uncomplicated influenza under the RAPIVAB, RAPIACTA, and PERAMIFLU names; and ORLADEYO, an oral serine protease inhibitor to treat hereditary angioedema. It is also developing BCX10013, an oral factor D inhibitor for complement-mediated diseases. The company has collaborations and in-license relationships with the Torii Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; Seqirus UK Limited; Shionogi & Co., Ltd.; Green Cross Corporation; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority; the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and The University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Industrial Research, Ltd. BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.

About Aurinia Pharmaceuticals

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing therapies to treat various diseases with unmet medical need in the United States. It offers LUPKYNIS for the treatment of adult patients with active lupus nephritis. It has a collaboration and license agreement with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The company was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada.