Head-To-Head Review: Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) & XBiotech (NASDAQ:XBIT)

XBiotech (NASDAQ:XBIT) and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

55.7% of XBiotech shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.8% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by institutional investors. 33.1% of XBiotech shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.3% of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

XBiotech has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for XBiotech and Aurinia Pharmaceuticals, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
XBiotech	0	0	0	0	0.00
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	0	0	2	0	3.00

Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has a consensus price target of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 45.11%. Given Aurinia Pharmaceuticals’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Aurinia Pharmaceuticals is more favorable than XBiotech.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
XBiotech	N/A	-15.99%	-14.85%
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	-10.23%	-4.41%	-3.07%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares XBiotech 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
XBiotech	$4.01 million	22.73	-$24.56 million	($1.08)	-2.77
Aurinia Pharmaceuticals	$175.51 million	6.47	-$78.02 million	($0.15)	-52.83

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

About XBiotech

XBiotech Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, discovers, develops, and commercializes True Human monoclonal antibodies for treating various diseases. The company focuses on developing a pipeline of product candidates targeting both inflammatory and infectious diseases. It is also developing interleukin-1 alpha therapies to treat variety of medical conditions, such as cancer, stroke, heart attack, or arthritis; and mediates tissue breakdown, angiogenesis, the formation of blood clots, malaise, muscle wasting, and inflammation. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

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.